Perseus Son of Vesta: Reborn From Ashes
by SDMS135
Summary: After the Second Titan War, Percy Jackson was banished and betrayed by all but a few. He was adopted by Vesta, and blessed by five others. In a desperate attempt, he was accepted into New Rome with the help of his patrons. His old life caught up and a certain dead huntress returned with Death missing. Can Rome and Greece ever come together to face Gaea? Sequel up.
1. Prologue: Goodbye and A New Journey

_Guess what, my new story is up!_

_This is it, Son of Vesta: Reborn From Ashes!_

_I have to warn you though, my main focus is on Son of Chaos: The Road to Vengeance, therefore I won't be able to update this story very frequently, but I promise I'll do my best!_

_Enjoy the first chapter!_

Prologue: Goodbye and A New Journey

It's middle of the night, a teenage boy around sixteen is running like crazy.

He has warm orange eyes with a very small ring of sea green around it, his long messy jet black hair was all over his face as he ran. He wore a simple orange T-shirt, blue jeans and a pair of sneakers.

In pursuit appears to be a dozen of tall men. If there is anything unusual about them, they only have one eye.

Cyclops.

The teen turned to face the Cyclops. He took out a ballpoint pen and uncapped it, extending it into a long, bronze sword.

A faint glow was radiated from the blade in the darkness. It's Celestial Bronze, the magical metal of the Gods and heroes.

The teen charged at the Cyclops, dodging Celestial Bronze clubs wielded by the monsters as he stabbed his blade into the first Cyclops' chest, bursting it into a pile of golden dust.

There was silence.

Then the Cyclops screamed in rage as they charged at the young half-blood. But no avail, the demigod easily dodged and blocked all the attacks from the Cyclops as he slayed the monsters.

Slicing, stabbing, swinging, he destroyed Cyclops after Cyclops with ease, as if it's the easiest thing on Earth to do.

Minutes later, all the Cyclops are gone. Where they once stood are now filled with golden dusts.

The teen wiped sweet away from his forehead as he continued to make his way towards his destination, Caldecott Tunnel located in San Fransisco.

In case you don't know, monsters burst into golden dusts after they are killed.

Only weapons made of the metals, Adamantine, Celestial Bronze, silver enchanted with magic, Stygian Iron and Imperial Gold.

You must be wondering what the Hades is Imperial Gold.

Well… Imperial Gold has similar effects with Celestial Bronze, almost as rare. Celestial Bronze is mined directly from Mt. Olympus, and Imperial Gold… Well, it's a whole different story.

The reason you've probably never heard of Imperial Gold from Percy Jackson before, is that Greeks don't use Imperial Gold, only Romans use it.

Speaking of which, I should probably explain that the teen mentioned before, is Percy Jackson.

The Percy Jackson? The Son of Poseidon and Savior of Olympus?

That was another lifetime.

He is now Perseus Jackson, Son of Vesta, Champion of Apollo, Athena, Diana, Mercury and Pluto.

As you already know, after the Second Titan War, Percy Jackson was offered godhood by the Olympian Council, as a reward of defeating the Titan Lord Kronos.

He however, turned the offer down, for the sake of demigods and minor gods.

You'd think that after everything he's done, he'd be worshipped like the hero he is. Well, WRONG!

New campers would always keep their distance from Percy, as if he is some sort of alien or freak.

Even his best friend, Annabeth Chase, who he was hopelessly in love with. Key word, _was_, has been more distant than ever.

Only the very few close friends of his, Grover, Tyson, Thalia, Nico, Travis, Connor, Katie, Malcom, Chris, Clarisse and Chiron (If he counts), still acted the same way.

A few weeks later, Percy was summoned to Olympus by Zeus.

You'd think that Zeus is going to reward him further for saving Olympus. Well… Wrong again.

During the council meeting, Zeus claimed that Percy is a threat to Olympus, since he has became too powerful, and he had to be planning on turning against the Gods since he declined godhood.

Right, after risking his life for the Gods for five years he'd decide to overthrow them all the sudden.

You are not going to believe it, but most of the council, including his own father, Poseidon agreed that Percy is too powerful and posses a threat to Olympus.

Only Apollo and Hermes (His good friends), Athena (For once she's not letting her emotions blind her judgment), Artemis (Who thinks Percy is the only decent male ever lived ever since he held sky for her), Hades (Surprisingly) and Hestia (Who is as nice as usual) supported Percy.

So, Percy Jackson was banished from Camp Half-blood and Olympus.

And most of the idiotic campers even threw a f***… Sorry, my bad, forgot this story is only rate T, I mean a freaking party to celebrate it. Annabeth, A.K.A. bitch, was the one who started it. She even spread fake lies about Percy.

All the sudden, the Savior of Olympus was betrayed and banished.

The worst part is, his own mother, Sally Jackson, has left him and moved away because she doesn't want Percy anymore, since she has a chance to live a normal life, without a freak son in it.

He had nowhere to go.

He had nobody with him on the run, but Blackjack, Mrs. O'Leary and Peleus. A Pegasus, a Hellhound and a Dragon, isn't that sweet?

A few weeks later, he was visited by Hestia, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Hermes and Hades.

They told Percy there is a place that he can go, and it's called Camp Jupiter in San Francisco.

They had to explain the Gods having two personas and there are Greek and Roman demigods.

Camp Jupiter is the Roman equivalent of Camp Half-blood. They also told him a new threat arises and Zeus being the arrogant idiot he is, has closed Olympus and cut all the connections between the Gods and the mortal world.

His mission is to do his best at Camp Jupiter, and prepare the legionaries for the upcoming war.

Percy received all their blessing, from their Roman equivalent of course. Except Athena who hates Rome with a passion after they stole her Parthenos and took away her title as Goddess of Battle Strategy.

Apparently Athena thinks Annabeth has made a dumb decision by betraying Percy like that and the only hope of the western civilization rests on Percy's shoulders.

Another good news is, Hestia, or should I say Vesta offered to adopt Percy, which he was more than happy to accept. Since he relinquished his title as Son of Poseidon and was adopted by the Roman Goddess of Hearth, Percy is a Roman now, which is something he really appreciates after everything.

Being the first and only child of Hestia or Vesta and all, makes him being spoiled by his mother a lot.

Percy got a bunch of cool magical items from his mother and patrons. An invisibility cap like Annabeth's and an encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology from Athena, a pair of flying sneakers like the ones Luke gave him from Hermes, a watch that turns into a circular Celestial Bronze shield morphed with his second spoiler of war, Medusa's head like the one Athena has from Apollo (Don't ask me how Apollo got that after Sally "Disposed" it, I have no idea), only it can actually petrify someone under his will, a bow charm pierced through a silver necklace that turns into a magical bow and quiver and hunting knives enchanted with some cool magic from Artemis.

Hades on the other hand, had Percy's namesake's consent to give his Adamantine blade to him, blessed by Zeus in the ancient times to be able to control lightning. And Hestia, you won't believe what Percy got from her.

Kronos' scythe.

Hestia re-forged it in her hearth on Olympus with Adamantine, Celestial Bronze and mortal steel. It is enchanted to take the form of a ring, and it can turn into any weapon of choice.

It's a very powerful weapon that can even make an immortal fade.

Lucky he bathed in River Styx.

Vesta warned Percy about the Tiber River that would wash away his Curse of Achilles since it's a Greek curse, and Percy would take extra caution to make sure he avoids the Tiber River.

Percy once turned it into a lightning bolt, and let's just say that the Hydra Percy "Experimented" on had a rough time before returning to Tartarus.

Percy made his way to the traffic near by the Caldecott Tunnel, and that's when he ran into two familiar looking monsters in what appears to be supermarket employee uniforms holding metal plates filled with snackers.

'The Gorgons' He thought sarcastically, Athena's encyclopedia helped a lot since it's written in Greek, 'Great'

He stumbled forward, impaling the first Gorgon's chest with Anaklusmos by surprise before turning to the second one. He thrust his right forward at the Gorgon as flames engulfed the monster's body. It's eyes widened at the flame before letting out an agonizing painful scream.

Another mile ahead, an entrance is being guarded by two teenagers behind a river.

Mortals would just ignore it but Percy knows better. Through the mist, he sees a large city. New Rome.

Using the last ounce left of his strength, he marched forward.

In front of the entrance, stood a fat Asian boy with a bow and quiver strapped on his back and a tall girl with chocolate hair, golden eyes and brown skin, hands on her Spatha, both in light golden Roman style battle armor.

"Halt! Identify yourself!"

_Well, that was a short prologue of this new story, hope you like it so far!_

_If you've got any ideas, feel free to review or PM me, I could use some._

_The next chapter, Percy's adventure in New Rome will begin!_

_The poll voting for this story's pairing is still up, go vote for it!_

_Bianca is leading so far!_

_Anyways, thank you for reading,_

_have a nice day,_

_and til the next time!_

_T.C. ya!_


	2. Chapter 1: Welcome To Camp Jupiter

_Hello everyone!_

_I present you chapter one!_

Chapter One: Welcome to Camp Jupiter

"Halt! Identify yourself!"

The fat Asian boy questioned loudly.

Before Percy could even respond, a glowing light appeared next to him. When the glow died down, an eight-year-old girl with flaming orange eyes appeared next to him.

"Lady Vesta" Said the two teens as they dropped to a deep bow.

Vesta just smiled as she waved them off.

"Take me to your praetors," Said Vesta firmly to the two demigods.

The two legionaries nodded their heads nervously as the girl led Percy and Vesta inside New Rome, while the boy remained on border patrol.

"It would be an honor, my lady." Said the girl respectfully.

Percy then asked casually, "What's your name?"

"Hazel. Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto."

Percy grinned, "Guess that makes us cousins."

He ignored the curious glance from Hazel as they made their way to the praetor.

Being the champion of Pluto and all, he can sense that something is off with the girl in front of him, he'll just have to check it with his uncle later.

They passed through the barracks of the Praetorian Gates and made their way to the Principia.

Hazel led them inside where a girl with curly dark hair and black eyes and a boy with blonde hair and familiar electric blue eyes stood. Another boy with blonde hair blue eyes was ranting smugly, Percy could tell that he doesn't like this boy annoying, maybe another arrogant son of Zeus like Heracles? But the boy's eyes are more like the ones children of Apollo and Hermes or Mercury, whatever have.

Hazel cleared her throat and the three teens turned to look at them.

The girl's eyes flashed dangerously at recognization when her eyes landed on Percy before turning to bow to Vesta.

"Lady Vesta," Started the girl as she got up, "What can we do for you?"

Even though she was speaking to Vesta, the girl was still staring at Percy strangely. Her face darkened and Percy couldn't help but to think he has seen this girl somewhere before. His mind quickly raced through years of memories as Athena's blessing kicked in.

And the first boy, Percy had this strange feeling that he really looks like someone he knows, really well actually, but he just couldn't figure it out.

Vesta ignored the look the girl was giving Percy and smiled to her, "I am here to deliver a new recruit to the legion, praetor Reyna."

One good thing about being a Goddess, you know basically everything.

Percy's strange feeling even grew stronger at the sound of that name, Reyna. He was certain that some point in the past, he's heard of that name, but his mind was still searching for the answer.

It can wait for now, he'll have to ask his mother once after this meeting is over.

The second blonde guy eyed Percy warily before opening his mouth, but a glare from Vesta shut him up before he could even speak. This is the first time Percy has ever seen Vesta or Hestia gets angry, not even a little bit, looks like this boy is definitely going to be trouble.

The praetor named Reyna spoke again carefully, "If I may ask, lady Vesta, why is it that you are delivering a new recruit yourself? As far as I know, you've never made a presence in New Rome before?"

Vesta smiled warmly at Reyna again, before answering, "This is Perseus Jackson, my adopted son. He has been serving Olympus for the past five years, that's why he is only brought here now. I trust my word would be sufficient as a recommendation letter for my son to enter the legion?"

Reyna nodded, "We could use every single soldier we can find right now."

Vesta sent Reyna a appreciating smile before kissing Percy's forehead and vanished in a flash of orange flames.

Reyna is now sizing up Percy more closely, much to his dismay as her face is a mix of emotions he couldn't pick up. What in the name of Pluto happened?

Before Percy could ask, the skinny blonde guy cleared his throat.

Percy narrowed his eyes dangerously at the blonde, "Is there anything you need?"

The blonde glared at Percy, but the son of Vesta didn't even flinch, "Yes, as the auger, all new recruits of the legion are to be checked with the Auguries by me, you can never be too careful these days, who knows what could be coming next?"

Percy clinched his fist but before he could give this idiot in front of him a good beating, the other blonde guy beat him into the next move.

"Are you questioning lady Vesta's word Octavian?" Warned the blonde in annoyance.

Before the guy apparently called Octavian could respond, he cried out loudly in pain as an orange arrow imbedded into his left shoulder.

The praetors turned around in shock, only to find Percy holding his orange bow firmly as his eyes flashed dangerously.

Percy then stepped towards Octavian terrifyingly slowly as the auger is now trembling in fear. Percy lifted Octavian tightly by the throat into air as he snapped angrily, "Disrespect my mother like that again and the next arrow will be cracking open your skull, do I make myself clear."

Octavian nodded eagerly as Percy roughly tossed him half way across the room, causing the auger to scream painfully again.

The other blonde guy looked at Percy upside down as he made his way to the angry son of Vesta, "Come on, your test starts in thirty minutes, I'll give you a tour around the city."

Percy nodded grudgingly as he sent Octavian one last harsh glare before following the praetor out.

"That was a nice show you put back there," Spoke the blonde after a few moments of silence, "I've been dying to do that myself."

Percy gave the praetor a slight smile as he looked around New Rome again. Sure his mother told him many things about the city, but seeing it once with your own eyes makes it more shocking.

"Name's Jason by the way, Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, praetor of the Twelfth Legion."

Percy froze on the spot as he turned to look at Jason, no wonder why he looked so familiar. Those electric blue eyes, and the last name Grace, he's Thalia's brother! Thalia never told anyone about having a brother though, and how in Tartarus is he a Roman?

Speaking of which, there is a few people Percy missed after leaving camp, and Thalia is certainly one of them. She had her cousin's back no matter what, even it meant she had to stand up against her own father.

Luckily, her mistress backed both Percy and Thalia up on the council, which is why Percy is so grateful to Artemis. Only very few people, including Thalia knows where Percy is right now, and for his cousin's sake he'd take care of her brother.

Percy was brought back into reality when a loud sound came in front him.

"Um… Hello Perseus, you there?" Said Jason as he snapped his fingers in front of his cousin's face, "You were zoning out."

"Sorry." Apologized Percy in a normal voice and volume as if nothing has happened, "Just Percy by the way, you were saying?"

Jason laughed, before continuing proudly, "I was just saying that we had the world's finest architects to design the city, taking the best parts…"

"The best parts of Greece and Rome." Finished Percy.

Jason's eyes widened a little bit in surprise, "Yes, how did you know?"

Percy's face darkened before replying briefly, "Let's just say that I had a friend who's crazy about architecture." Annabeth.

Jason nodded understandingly while taking another look at Percy, sure there is something in his new friend's past that caused the sudden change in the atmosphere, but he decided to drop it for now.

"So… What is this test anyway? What will I be fighting?" Questioned Percy both in curiosity and a bit of excitement.

"You'll be fighting the centurions from all five cohorts, most of them are the best and most skilled fighters from their cohorts."

Percy raised an eyebrow, "Most of them?"

"Octavian, that idiot can't even hold a sword properly!"

Percy nodded.

"You'll only be fighting one centurion from the fifth cohort since the senior centurion has been recently promoted to a praetor, the successor is yet to be selected."

"Who?"

"Me."

"What happens if I defeat all the centurions?"

Jason eyes his cousin again, "Good luck with that, the only person who's done that before is Reyna, and it was a few years ago."

Percy nodded, smirking, "How did Octavian become a centurion anyway? Bribery?"

Jason bust into a fit of laughter, "Nah, he has influence in both the senate and the legion, and he'd do a lot better in a reality TV show than the legion."

Percy laughed as well, he could already tell how much Thalia and Jason are alike, that makes him the third tolerable child of Zeus, Jupiter, what-the-Hades-so-ever in history.

Line Break

After a very short tour around New Rome, Jason led Percy to the coliseum which is inside the city.

As they approached the city, Percy jumped back in surprise when a statue came to life.

"No weapon inside the Pomerian Line!" Said the statue sternly as it took a good at Percy.

Percy just stared at the armless statue in awe as Jason took out a golden coin and dropped it into a bin next to the statue.

"Terminus?"

"Of course! Unless you can name another person who's working his head off for the sake of Rome!"

"Umm…" Started Jason, but a glare from Terminus told him better.

"I'll need them for my test, so no."

"Your weapons will be handed back to you in the coliseum." Explained Jason as he put a hand on his Percy's shoulder to cool his cousin off.

Percy stared at Terminus for a few seconds before unarming himself.

It was a painfully long wait actually, his ballpoint pen Anaklusmos, his namesake's Adamantine blade, his semi-circle leg ornament that turns into a Celestial Bronze spear, his ring that turns into the legendary Kronos' scythe, his necklace that turns into a silver bow and quiver, his Gladius, his dagger Katoptris and a loaded Glock 18 pistol he snatched from Camp Half-blood's armory, and his backpack which was stuffed with jars of Greek Fire grenades.

After he's done, he had to jab Jason in the ribs to get him out of his wonderland.

"What in the name of Jupiter was that for?"

"Your jaw dropped and your eyeballs were popping out of your sockets."

"Where the Pluto did you get that many weapons."

Percy shrugged, before saying casually, "Let's just say that I have a few loving patrons."

Jason shot him a questioning look, but Percy just made his way over the Pomerian Line, soon followed by an awed son of Jupiter.

Jason brought Percy to Reyna who was waiting for the two demigods to arrive inside the coliseum, staring at Percy in disbelief as her eyes told him he just broke the record of carrying the most amount of weapons once.

Percy retrieved his weapons as he tugged his gun onto his magical belt and stuffed Greek Fire grenades onto his magical belt as well.

Reyna wished Percy luck and made her way to her sear on the main stand.

"Legionaries! Today, Perseus Jackson, son of Vesta has been admitted into the legion and now seeks a cohort to accept him! He will be fighting with all the centurions starting from the fifth cohort to the first until he is defeated! First up, centurion Gwen, daughter of Ceres from fifth cohort!"

_Thanks for reading_

_have a nice day_

_and til the next time!_

_T.C. ya!_


	3. Chapter 2: Test With The Centurions

Chapter Two: Jackson For The Win!

Reyna wished Percy luck and made her way back to her seat on the main stand.

"Legionaries! Today, Perseus Jackson, son of Vesta has been admitted into the legion and now seeks a cohort to accept him! He will be fighting with all the centurions starting from the fifth cohort to the first until he is defeated! First up, centurion Gwen, daughter of Ceres from fifth cohort!"

Loud cheers came from the stand as an average height girl with black hair and brown eyes stepped into the middle of the coliseum.

She eyed Percy incredulously before asking, "Where is your armor?"

Percy just grinned mischievously as he tapped on his belt. A flaming orange glow engulfed Percy's body and when it died down, Percy was covered in light, orange Greek style battle armor without a helmet.

Gwen's eyes widened, "Weapon?"

Percy responded briefly, "That depends."

Gwen unsheathed her golden Gladius and Percy smirked. He took his ballpoint pen out of his pocket, earning snickers from the stand, but they quickly died down when it transformed into a three feet long bronze sword.

Gwen raised an eyebrow, before she could ask, Percy already answered, "A Celestial Bronze sword is a preferred choice than a sword made of Imperial Gold since its more balanced and easier to wield." Percy half-stated, those lessons from Athena really helps a lot.

Reyna watched the two opponents cautiously before shouting, "Begin!"

Gwen wasted no time in raising her golden Gladius and charged at Percy, while the legendary demigod just calmly brought up Anaklusmos to block the strike.

Percy jumped back as Gwen made a quick slice across Percy's chest, barely missing the son of Vesta's shirt. Percy then swung Anaklusmos is a swift motion aiming at Gwen's midsection, but only to be blocked by the daughter of Ceres' Gladius.

Gwen made her counterattack at Percy, twisting her body just enough to bruise against the bronze blade in the hands of the son of Vesta, before suddenly making a wild swing aiming directly at Percy's head.

Percy, much to his opponent's shock, simply twisted his wrist and deflected Gwen's blade with the flat of his own, batting the Gladius aside. Gwen held onto her Gladius firmly right after raising her shield to block a powerful strike made by Percy, shocking her left arm as she was forced to drop her shield and fight with her Gladius only.

Percy fainted a jab aiming at Gwen's chest, and the centurion quickly raised her blade to counter Percy's, only for her opponent to slide his legendary blade down against Gwen's, before twisting his wrist, and using everything he's got, yanking the Gladius out of Gwen's firm grasp.

The golden Gladius on the ground as a certain bronze sword was pointed on Gwen's neck, forcing her to stay still.

"Do you yield?" Asked Percy in his usual care-free tone, but what he and everyone else didn't expect was, the daughter of Ceres twisted her body again in a fluid motion, side flipping away from Anaklusmos before taking out an Imperial Gold spear and held it tight in her hands, staring at Percy defiantly.

The son of Vesta raised an eyebrow, looking at his opponent with new found respect before capping his sword.

Gwen looked at him, clearly confused, but Percy just grinned while pulling his semi-circle leg ornament off his right thigh, expanding it too into a long, Imperial Gold spear.

The two charged at each other simultaneously, sparks jumped into air as metals clashed. Percy and Gwen exchanged blows after blows, obviously Gwen is just as skilled with a spear as she is with a sword, while Percy has always favored a sword over a spear ever since he first came to Camp Half-blood as a twelve-year-old.

Percy blocked another one of Gwen's stabs, only to be stabbed on the left chest as Gwen quickly found an opening. The spear however, just bounced off Percy's skin harmlessly, much to Gwen's, and everyone else's shock.

Before Gwen could recover, Percy quickly brought down his spear, sweeping Gwen off her feet with the blunt of his spear, pushing the daughter of Ceres to the ground. Percy then jabbed Gwen on the stomach hard with the none-business-end of his spear, causing her to yelp as she was forced to release her hold on her spear.

Not giving Gwen another chance, Percy pointed his spear against Gwen's throat a lot harder this time, making the daughter of Ceres yield before she gets an hole on her throat.

Loud cheers and applauses came from the stand of the coliseum, even Jason and Reyna were cheering once they got over their shock.

Reyna raised a hand to silence the crowd, "Next we have legionary Dakota, son of Bacchus from fifth cohort!"

A tall boy with black hair and blue eyes made his way to the middle of the coliseum, stumbling forward as he walked, nearly tripped himself with his own feet. His body seemed to be shaking as he held a long Imperial Gold sword sternly.

Percy eyed Dakota incredulously before asking, "Are you drunk?"

Dakota took out a bottle from his pocket and shove more red liquid down his throat before responding in a half-drunk tone, "I… It's call-called Kool-Aid, kid."

Percy gave him an are-you-freaking-kidding-me look, but Dakota just dunk more Kool-Aid down his throat and tossed the empty bottle aside, managing to get into a fighting stance.

"Begin!"

Dakota rushed towards Percy in a surprisingly fast pace, thrusting his sword at Percy's neck.

Percy just rolled his eyes as he barely batted the flat of Dakota's blade away with his bare hand before delivering a powerful smash at the son of Bacchus' face with the hilt of Anaklusmos, knocking him out cold as Dakota's body dropped to the floor motionless.

Guess fifth really sucks.

Reyna cleared her throat to silence the crowd before ordering, "Someone bring Dakota to infirmary, the next fighter will be centurion Leo Valdez, son of Vulcan from fourth cohort."

A short Latino boy with black hair and brown eyes raised from the stand and walked into the middle of the coliseum with a troublesome grin on his face.

Percy sized this Leo boy carefully, but he just grinned as he pulled out a hammer from what must be a tool belt enchanted with magic. Percy decided to keep using Anaklusmos to fight this boy, judging by his movement and stance the son of Vulcan might be an excellent mechanic, but definitely not the best fighter.

Reyna signaled the start of the fight as Leo charged at Percy.

Leo waved his hammer forcefully at the son of Vesta, but every single one of his swing was blocked by Anaklusmos accurately, not giving the son of Vulcan an exposed opening to deliver the final blow.

The boy has strength that Percy has to give, and he wielded the hammer like a natural, but Percy has fought much tougher and stronger opponents before.

Leo smashed his hammer down at Percy's head, only to meet the son of Vesta's bronze blade. He growled in frustration and he swung his hammer harder and faster, pressing Percy back as he desperately tried to land a blow on the son of Vesta, but Percy batted all of them away with much ease.

Leo retracted his right arm to slam it at Percy's ribs harder, but it was intercepted by Anaklusmos as Percy put so much force into the swing, yanking the hammer forcefully out of Leo's hand.

Before Percy could finish the spar off, Leo backed himself away from the son of Vesta as fire engulfed his body. Putting Percy's initial shock to good use, Leo blasted a ball of fire at his opponent's chest, but the son of Vesta only smirked as his body absorbed the fireball, much to Leo's shock.

Using Apollo's blessing, Percy concentrated on the rays of sunlight around him as he draw an immense amount of energy from the sunlight. Faster than human eyes can comprehend, Percy threw himself at Leo, pressing the Latino boy below him body firmly with his right knee and held Katoptris at Leo's throat.

"Yield?"

Leo nodded eagerly and Percy unattached himself from the son of Vulcan.

"Next up is centurion Frank Zhang, son of Mars and legacy of Neptune from fourth cohort!" Reyna announced loudly while a fat Asian boy approached Percy clumsily, holding a bow with his right hand somewhat nervously while a quiver full of arrows was strapped on his back.

"Begin!" Reyna shouted.

Not wasting even a second, Frank quickly notched an arrow and pulled the string of his bow back, aiming at Percy.

The son of Vesta tapped on his watch quickly and hid his body behind his mixed Celestial Bronze, Adamantine and Imperial Gold circular shield, while shrinking his body as much as possible.

Percy waited behind his shield patiently as the son of Mars approached him slowly and carefully, while the number of arrows in his quiver quickly diminished, causing Percy to smirk internally.

Just as Frank ran out of arrows, Percy pulled his silver bow charm pierced on his necklace, turning it into a silver bow and a silver quiver magically appeared, strapped on Percy's back tightly.

Those were bow and quiver Zoe carried for two thousand years until she fell on Mt. Othris, Artemis trusted Percy enough to pass her greatest huntress' bow to him.

Zoe. Percy thought sadly, as a beautiful, tall, fourteen-year-old figure with rocking volcanic black eyes and copper skin came into his mind. To be honest, he missed her. She had been a great friend, and the greatest person Percy Jackson's ever met in his entire life. He used to spend hours just staring at Zoe's constellation in the sky, he felt guilty for letting her die at her father Atlas' hands.

He quickly took aim at the son of Mars and released an arrow, impaling his shoulder and Franks screamed in pain.

Before Percy could notch another arrow, his jaw dropped. In front of his disbelieving eyes, Frank Zhang shifted into a giant elephant and roared at him.

Frank, or should I say the elephant charged at Percy wildly, and the son of Vesta barely managed to jump aside just in time to evade Frank's large ivories.

The elephant turned to lung itself at its opponent again, but it froze in its track fearfully when Percy waved is hands, creating a wall of orange flames and it blocked the elephants.

The elephant turned around, only to meet another wall of fire. Soon, it was trapped in its place by four high walls of flames. Percy waved his hands again as he summoned enormous amount of shadows and they were wrapped around the elephant's head.

After a few long, exhausting seconds, Percy dropped to a knee, panting hard to catch his breath again. The elephant on the other hand, has dropped to the ground hard before transforming back into an unconscious Frank Zhang.

Reyna ordered a medic to take Frank to the infirmary and called the next opponent. The spars after that went smooth as Percy defeated the centurions from the third cohort with ease.

"Now we have centurion Bobby, son of Mars from the second cohort!"

A tall, well built boy with brown hair and red eyes came into Percy's sight, wearing a smug smile on his face. Percy could already tell that Bobby is just like his father.

"Well, you are lucky you've made it this far kid, but your test ends here." Said Bobby in a prideful tone as his smug smirk grew.

Percy narrowed his eyes at the son of Mars, "And why would that be?"

"Because you only defeated those weak centurions from those rubbish cohorts, especially the fifth!" Replied the other centurion from the forth, Mark, who is also a son of Mars, arrogantly.

"And I am the centurion from the second cohort, the best cohort and myself is the best swordsman in the legion!" Bobby finished, still smirking smugly.

Percy's body trembled in anger as his eyes caught fire, "Then why don't you two fight me altogether, show me power of the mighty centurions of the great second cohort!"

Mark just laughed, "Ha! This newbie here has a death wish! No thanks, I think my brother can handle you myself."

Percy smirked, "I thought so. So are just like your coward father. You know, I was able to defeat him back when I was twelve. Huh, he even cried like a little girl when I gave him a nice stab on his heel, hmm… I wonder if it still hurts or not." He taunted, causing Mark's face redden in rage.

Not even bothering for Reyna's signal to start, Mark jumped into the arena and charged at Percy with his spear out, soon followed by Bobby with a Gladius in his hands.

Percy grinned and met Mark's spear with Anaklusmos, he delivered a hard kick at his ribs before bring his sword to his right to block Bobby's Gladius. Percy jumped back as Mark's spear was thrust at were he stood seconds ago.

Grabbing the spear firmly with his free hand, Percy pushed it hardly at Bobby's Gladius which was swung at his head, catching it in mid-air. He then slammed the hilt of Anaklusmos onto the spear, smashing it clean in half and caught Mark's exposed nose with the blunt of the broken half of his spear, knocking him out cold.

Percy raised Anaklusmos again, batting Bobby's Gladius away before flipping the broken half of the spear in his left hand. He then thrust his left arm forward, impaling Bobby's right shoulder with the lance of the spear he held, causing the son of Mars to cry out in pain as he was forced to drop his Gladius.

With a wave of his hand, Percy swept Bobby's legs from under with the blunt of his sword and smashed his foot onto Bobby's face, breaking his nose in the process as the son of Mars passed out.

The crowed silenced in shock, knowing that two of the best fighters in the legion have been defeated with ease in mere seconds by the son of Vesta single handedly with only a sword.

"Can some one please bring douchebag No.1 and douchebag No.2 here to the infirmary?"

Reyna cleared her throat loudly and instructed a few medics to take the two sons of Mars to the infirmary.

"Next up is centurion Octavian, legacy of Apollo from the first cohort!"

Percy grinned in excitement, looking forward to humiliate the idiotic legacy of Apollo in front of the entire New Rome.

Not a moment later, a smug looking blonde boy with blue eyes walked up in full battle armor, while holding an Imperial Gold blade and a golden shield, wearing a golden helmet with a purple feather stick in it.

Percy grinned as he stepped forward to approach Octavian.

"Where is your weapon?" Asked Octavian arrogantly.

"Against an opponent like you?" Responded Percy innocently, "Why would I need one?"

Snickers came from the stand, Jason laughed loudly and even Reyna cracked up a small smile on her face despite her efforts to not to.

Octavian's face reddened at both anger and embarrassment as he raised his sword high above his hand, "You insufferable Graeceus! I will show you how a real Roman fight!" Octavian yelled angrily before charging at Percy with his sword raised.

The son of Vesta smirked. He easily sidestepped Octavian's attack and land a hard punch at the legacy of Apollo's face, breaking his nose effectively as Octavian dropped his sword, groaning in pain while holding his nose with his right hand, loud laughter were heard from the fourth's and the fifth cohort's stands.

Octavian growled angrily again, but Percy just laughed at his face.

"Go!" Said Percy mockingly at the auger while eying the golden blade lying on the floor, "Go pick up your weapon, hero. Show me the strength of the mighty centurion of the first cohort."

Octavian glared at him before taking off running to pick up his sword, even more laughter came from the crowd. Shadows wrapped around Octavian's right heel before solidifying, tripping auger as his face fell straight onto the hilt of his own blade, damaging his already broken nose even further.

"Oops." Said Percy in a fake innocent tone, Jason was rolling on the floor, clutching his stomach, laughing hysterically as he gasped for oxygen, same can be said for most other Romans watching in the coliseum, even Reyna was laughing hard.

Octavian groaned again before trying to stand up, key word, trying, only to have another shadow wrapped around his neck, pulling him down quickly, slamming his face onto the ground even harder.

The auger reached for his blade with his fingertips, but the sword seemed to be keep moving forward, slipping away from Octavian's grasp every time he tries to retrieve his weapon.

Octavian finally managed to get on his feet again, not a moment later the Imperial Gold sword was sent flying backwards by an invisible force, slamming its hilt hard right onto the auger's family jewelry, making Octavian to drop to the ground again with even more force, holding his manhood tight for his dear life as he screamed like a five-year-old girl.

Everybody, by everybody I mean everybody was rolling on the floor, laughing harder than they've ever done in their entire lives and tears streamed down their cheek, Jason was even cursing Percy for making him laugh so hard so that his stomach hurts like Pluto. Percy himself fell off his feet, laughing his head off at his master piece.

After a few long, agonizing minutes, Octavian successfully pushed himself onto his feet, while still clutching his manhood, trying to ease the immense amount of pain coming between his legs.

Percy barely managed to contain his laughter for awhile before snapping his fingers, summoning three skeletons, surrounding the now terrified auger.

Two of the skeletons held Octavian firmly in his place while the last one started tickling Octavian hard on the sides.

It was the most entertaining event in the history of New Rome.

Percy only ordered the skeleton to stop to knock Octavian out when the poor auger looked like his stomach is going to burst out of his mouth any second now.

After a good five-minute of laughing, Reyna finally calmed herself down and ordered to children of Apollo to drag the unconscious Octavian to the infirmary while most other Romans were still laughing their heads off.

"The last centurion in coliseum today is centurion Piper McLean daughter of Venus, centurion of first cohort!"

_Hey guys, sorry for the wait. I tried to update earlier, but fanfic was down._

_I bet many of you didn't see Piper and Leo being Romans and Frank being a centurion already._

_Anyway, now that another chapter is finished, the next chapter will be **very **interesting that I assure you._

_There's been a change of plans and I'll be updating this story a few more times before updating the next chapter of Son of Chaos, but no worries, it's not on a pause or anything, I'm just having tons of inspiration about this story right now._

_It's going to be Percy/Zoe since Zoe beat Bianca with five votes, and to answer many of your questions, hello? The last I checked, the Doors of Death are wide open, remember? Might bring both Zoe and Bianca back as well._

_Go vote for my new poll!_

_Thanks for reading,_

_have a nice day_

_and til the next time!_

_T.C. ya!_


	4. Chapter 3: Praetors & The Colisuem

Chapter Three: Praetors &amp; The Coliseum

"The last centurion in coliseum today is centurion Piper Mclean daughter of Venus, centurion of first cohort!"

Right on the cue, a beautiful girl with chocolate brown hair and color changing eyes came into Percy's sight while observing the son of Vesta carefully.

"Drop your weapons and surrender." She commanded with so much confidence so that Percy had to use every single ounce of his strength to fight off the sudden urge to obey whatever she says. He felt exactly the same many years ago when he first met Piper's mother, Venus in her Greek equivalent as Aphrodite during the quest to rescue Artemis.

"I hope you are more than just a charm speaker and a pretty face." Percy commented, surprising Piper since nobody, nobody has ever been able to resist her charm speak before.

Piper snorted before unsheathing her Imperial Gold dagger and charged at Percy. She made a quick but dead accurate stab at Percy's chest, only to be blocked by Percy's own dagger.

The son of Vesta and the daughter of Venus went back and forth as they exchanged blows after blows. Piper is a very brave yet intelligent and lethal fighter with the great skills she possessed over a dagger that rivals, if not surpasses Percy's. She's so much like Annabeth when she fights with her dagger. Annabeth…

Piper thrust another jab at Percy's right side, only to be blocked by Percy with the hilt of his dagger. Piper tried to bring up her dagger again, but Percy's strong hold kept her dagger arm down.

Percy suddenly raised his dagger and slashed it at an opening on Piper's left wildly, making a small cut on her forearm before the daughter of Venus scowled and met Percy's next strike with her own.

Piper stabbed her dagger at Percy wildly, the son of Vesta took his chance and sidestepped the overextended strike, grabbing her wrist with his free hand and knocked the weapon out of his opponent's hand with the hilt of his dagger before Piper could recover.

Surprising to Percy, Piper extended her leg while Percy went to disarm her, sweeping the son of Vesta off his feet before pulling out a Gladius that was strapped on her belt.

She thrust her sword arm forward to point the blade at Percy's neck, only to have it colliding with the floor of the coliseum as the son of Vesta quickly regained his composure and rolled aside from the strike.

Percy jumped backed on his feet before Piper could attack again and unsheathed his own Gladius. Sparks danced wildly in air as metals clashed with immense forces. Percy locked blades with Piper, forcing the daughter of Venus backs step by step with his superior strength and unrivaled skills.

Piper purposely loosened her grasp on her Gladius as Percy suddenly forced the blade out of her hand with much energy. Taking her chance, Piper swept Percy's legs with her foot, only for Percy to jump up, out of her reach in anticipation.

Piper cursed internally when Percy pointed his Gladius against Piper's neck, after trying and failing charm speak one more time, Piper yielded grudgingly.

Percy gave Piper an impressed smile, the test has actually been more difficult than he'd originally expected. Piper is by far the most skilled centurion he'd sparred with, surpassing Gwen's skills by a little.

Reyna stood up from the main stand, holding her Gladius with her left hand while pulling out a Imperial Gold spear, staring at Percy with confidence and pride as she got into a fighting stance.

Percy's face morphed into a serious expression. Reyna is, no doubt the best fighter in the legion, even Jason himself admitted it earlier, he know what he's gotten himself into, the fight of his life.

He strapped both his Gladius and dagger back into his sheathes.

Percy then brought out Anaklusmos and Aegis respectively. His bronze sword is one of the most powerful blades ever created, and his shield rivals the original Aegis belonging to Athena herself.

Without warning, the son of Vesta and the daughter of Bellona both charged at the same time.

Reyna thrust her spear at Percy's chest while swing down her Gladius at Percy's head with a deadly arc. Acting on battle instincts, batted the spear away by its blunt with his own Aegis, the one he named as Egis in correspondence to Aegis. Just like he's done so many times before, blocked the Gladius with Anaklusmos.

Percy fainted a swing at Reyna's face which she had to block with her own, giving him a chance to get inside her defense. Percy pressed harder and harder, but Reyna managed to parry most of them.

The two demigods backed away from each other, catching their breathes as they circled each other, both seeking an opportunity yet neither willing to make the first move.

Then Reyna charged, swing, stabbing and slashing, giving Percy a good fight as he struggled to keep up with Reyna's movement. Reyna fought with great agility and strength yet she kept her stance in check, not exposing an opening even for once.

The daughter of Bellona stabbed her spear forward while Anaklusmos was battling over domain with Reyna's Gladius, giving Percy a good size of knock even Egis blocked her spear in time, his left arm temporarily going numb, causing Reyna to smirk slightly.

Reyna has some cuts and bruises under the chinks of her armor while Percy himself took a few nasty stabs and slices, had it not for the Curse of Achilles, he too would be covered with wounds.

Not wasting the chance, Reyna forced down her Gladius even harder while hitting the openly exposed side of Percy's sword arm with the blunt of her spear, knocking Anaklusmos out of Percy's grasp effectively.

However, before Reyna could even start celebrating, an immense amount of pain came from Reyna's right forearm. She looked down only to see a shield being slammed onto Reyna's arm while her arm was being forced down to a knee, yelling in pain as her arm was pressed from both sides with the flat of a hard shield and a knee, twisting as she was forced to loose her grasp on her spear.

With a loud sound of bump, Reyna's spear hit the ground. Before she could even register what happened, her legs were swept from under her. Quickly, the daughter of Bellona rolled aside just as the bronze sword she was certain she just knocked off her opponent's hands only a few seconds ago was plunged down, imbedding the coliseum's floor as a few strands of her long black hair were cut loose.

Faster than she thought possible, she pushed herself up while dodging another wild swing from Anaklusmos. Still holding her Gladius firmly in her left hand as she drew her dagger with her right hand.

Their blades met again as their movements were nothing but blurs.

They exchanged strikes for minutes, making the legionaries gasping, awed by the skills they possessed. Finally finding an opening, Percy delivered a hard kick at Reyna's stomach, making the daughter of Bellona stumbling backwards before putting all his remaining strength in his right arm and slashed Anaklusmos down, yanking the Gladius out of Reyna's hand by sorely force.

With a hard slam from Egis, Reyna dropped her dagger as well, but not giving up yet. What's left of her energy, Reyna thrust forward and launched herself at Percy. The two demigods kept rolling until the end of the coliseum.

Percy was on the top.

Loud cheers and applauses escaped from the legionaries' mouths and hands after they registered the fact that someone has managed to defeat Reyna in one-on-one combat for the first time for as long as they can remember.

Percy watched in excitement as Jason jumped off his seat right into the middle of the coliseum. Controlling wind, that's something new, but Athena has told him about children of Zeus being able to control both lightning and wind before.

Jason grinned when Reyna signaled the start of the fight. The son of Jupiter pulled out a golden coin from his pocket and tossed it into air. The coin transformed into a golden Gladius. Percy on the other hand uncapped his pen, extending it into his trustworthy bronze sword Anaklusmos.

Jason charged at Percy, both of them fought with great speed and accuracy, neither of them has been able to land a blow on each other and it's been five minutes since the two demigods engaged in the fight.

Jason smirked and jumped up, willing the wind to take him in mid-air. His smirk however, vanished as soon as two pairs of wings appeared from the sides of Percy's sneakers and brought him up to Jason's level in air as well.

Percy grinned, before saying, "I like your style."

Jason just shook his head and raised his Gladius, calling down a bolt of lightning before pointing the blade at Percy, redirecting thousands of volts of electricity at the son of Vesta, expecting to see him to fall, but quickly, his and everybody else's jaw dropped.

Percy just smirked and held out his hand, absorbing the bolt of lightning as electricity coursed through his body. Using the power of his namesake's sword, more electricity coursed through his right arm as a much larger and far more powerful ball of electricity formed in his right hand.

Without hesitation, he retaliated with his own blast of electricity. The powerful blast of energy slammed right onto the middle of Jason's chest, sending the son of Jupiter flying straight into a pillar, crushing it while legionaries jumped away from the falling complex.

Jason just stared at Percy in awe and shot himself back up, sending another powerful strike of lightning at the son of Vesta, only to be dodged and smashing another pillar into pieces.

Percy dropped lower from the air to avoid another blast of electricity, destroying a few rolls of seats on the second cohort's stand, knocking out a few legionaries in the process.

The son of Vesta led loose a wall of fire at his opponent, while Jason willed wind to push himself aside rapidly, burning his purple Camp Jupiter shirt in the process, causing a few Venus girls to scream or faint.

Jason growl in frustration before channeling his Gladius with another massive bolt of lightning as electricity danced on his blade. Then, he shot himself at Percy with his Gladius pointing at the son of Vesta with the propulsion of a strong wind that threw a few legionaries off the stand.

Percy ran his hand over the flat of his blade, summoning the energy of sunlight as Anaklusmos glowed in a powerful gold, raw power radiating from the legendary Celestial Bronze sword and everybody else gasped in shock.

Raising Anaklusmos, Percy met Jason in the charge with his own. Two blades clashed as more and more raw power were unleashed from both the blades and the demigods, while their aura only grew more stronger rapidly and glowed powerfully, infinitely closing to the level of their fathers, Neptune and Jupiter.

"Oh Pluto," Reyna's eyes widened in shock before hitting the dirt, "TAKE COVER!"

Some of the Romans were lucky enough to break out of their shocked states and threw themselves off their seats while most others just kept staring in awe and disbelief, unfortunate for them.

The two demigods' aura grew even stronger as all the sudden both glows on their blades died down. A moment later, a loud Bang! Was heard as an explosion came from the middle of the coliseum, blinding every single Roman with the enormous amount of light intensity as the power of the collision reached every single corner of New Rome, blasting both Jason Grace and Percy Jackson away from the middle of the explosion.

A few second later, the glow of the explosion died down and those who witnessed the epic clash between the son of Jupiter and the son of Venus coughed loudly, gasping for oxygen.

"Great," Reyna muttered as she scanned around the coliseum, or what's left of it at least, ashes and smoke covered everywhere as the visibility was still only a little above zero, "Here goes another coliseum."

Minutes later, Reyna's vision cleared and she jumped off the stand. The coliseum was mostly in ruins, almost all the pillars were destroyed, while the stand was blasted away. A huge hole was on the dome of the coliseum, but thanks to the magical enchantments, the coliseum still stood, well…. Only barely.

For the sake of Jupiter…

Soon, more legionaries got back onto their feet and regained consciousness. Many legionaries were dragged to the infirmary, but luckily no casualty was accounted for. Percy was announced to be the victor since he managed to stand while leaning onto a large piece of rock, probably from a pillar. Jason on the other hand, was unconscious after being knocked in the head with a brick of the coliseum during the explosion, but he will be fine.

Praetor's to-do-list of the day:

1\. Gather enough Denarius to rebuild the coliseum

2\. Pass an act in the senate to forbid the massive use of demi-godly power in the coliseum

3\. Design a magical border to shield the spectators in the coliseum from further nuclear-bomb-sized explosions

4\. Expand the infirmary

5\. Recruit more medics

6\. Set up emergency medical stations

7\. Re-arrange all activities in the coliseum to the legion's arena

8\. Upload the video of Percy and Octavian's fight on YouTube

9\. Assign bodyguards for Octavian for his health

10\. Build personal training arenas for both Percy Jackson and Jason Grace for the sake of Jupiter and safety of New Rome and its citizens

11\. Arrange daily psychotherapy sessions and personal mental counselors for both Percy Jackson and Jason Grace

12\. Give both Percy Jackson and Jason Grace a good size of smack upside the head


	5. Chapter 4: Ave Perseus Jackson

Chapter Four: Ave Perseus Jackson!

The test went well.

Well… At least for Percy. Jason? Not so great. Right now, he's lying on a stretcher, unconscious as two children of Apollo carried him into the now seriously overpopulated infirmary.

Percy, on the other hand has recovered quickly after experienced something similar but far worse two years ago on Mt. St. Helens and shoving a whole lot of Ambrosia and Nectar down his throat.

Reyna cleared her throat loudly to get the legionaries' attention.

"Legionaries! Perseus Jackson has defeated every single opponent during his test, and now he will be choosing a cohort. I believe every cohort here will accept him, right?" Announced Reyna grudgingly.

"Yes."

The centurions, or at least the ones who were conscious nodded, although the senior centurions from the forth and the fifth cohorts, Frank and Gwen were saying it forcefully, since they are the supposed weakest cohorts in the legion.

Reyna turned her gaze to Percy expectantly as well as every remaining legionary from the first and the second cohorts.

Percy leaned over to Reyna's ears and muttered something to her. Reyna stared at Percy, clearly confused before muttering back the answer.

Percy grinned and announced loudly, "If they accept me, then I will choose the fifth cohort."

Three…

Two..

One.

"BUT THE FIFTH IS THE WORST!" Protested a recently returned Bobby loudly despite the fact that Percy just humiliated both him and his father less than an hour ago.

Percy just laughed, "Said the guy got knocked out in mere seconds when he was fighting two on one. Gwen is the best fighter I fought aside from Reyna, Jason and Piper. And Dakota was even more skilled than you. In case your small brain has already forgotten, he was drunk!"

Yep, coming up with good insults got a lot easier with Athena's blessing.

Sneakers came from the fifth cohort and Bobby's face reddened at both anger and embarrassment.

Before he could retort, Gwen stepped forward with a wild smiled stretched on her face, "I accept."

Loud sound of shield being smashed against the ground from the ranks of the fifth cohort signaling agreements from the cohort.

"It's decided then," Announced Reyna loudly who looked clearly surprised, "Perseus Jackson will be a new legionary of the fifth cohort. Return to your trainings, senate meeting in one hour."

**Line Break**

"Are you sure about this Gwen?" Percy asked surprisingly.

The daughter of Ceres nodded.

"But wouldn't people, I don't know, be upset that a newbie becomes a centurion on day one?" Percy questioned again.

Gwen turned to stare at her soon-to-be counterpart with her warm brown eyes seriously, "Percy, you are the best fighter I've met in my entire life. Nobody, nobody has been able to defeat Reyna, Jason or Piper in an one-on-one combat minus themselves for as long as I can remember. I was going to support Dakota, but after you knocked him out in less than five seconds, I don't think if anybody is going to question you becoming the centurion of the fifth instead of him."

Percy nodded, while flashing Gwen a grateful smile.

"Besides, that was a good show you put up back there," Said Gwen with a chuckle, "I bet you are going to be a legend in New Rome for centuries, I've never had that much fun before in my life."

Percy chuckled as well, before turning serious again, "Thank you Gwen. My patron told me about Michael Varus and the legion's eagle standard back in the 80s, I promise you the days of fifth cohort being the legion's laughing stock will end soon."

Gwen's eyes widened a bit, before turning serious as well, "Good luck Percy, but I don't think if anyone can do that, not even you. Things only got a little bit better after Jason came a few years ago."

Percy just shock his head, "Nothing is impossible cousin, it's only yet to be done."

Gwen nodded thoughtfully.

"Although none of my patrons told me what really happened during that quest," Percy continued, curious as well as concerned, "Do you know what happened?"

Gwen shock her head sadly, "Nobody does Percy. The rumors are, Michael Varus read the prophecy wrong and ventured into Alaska with almost the entire fifth cohort back then. Only a few legionaries made it back alive, excluding their praetor. Those who were lucky enough to survive were never the same again and retired from the legion shortly afterwards, it's like… It's like something back in Alaska drove them insane. They did mutter something about evil goddess, giants, earth and stuff though, at least that's how the story went. I'm sorry but that's all that I knows, if anyone might know more then it would be Reyna."

Percy nodded thankfully, "Don't be, it's already a lot to go on with."

His mind quickly raced with thousands of possibilities, trying to put the pieces of puzzles together. He was so close, his mind was telling him that he's missing something really obvious, but he just couldn't figure it out.

"Thank you Gwen," Percy added, "I'll tell you if I finds anything out."

Gwen smiled warmly at him.

Percy's face quickly turned into a playful frown, "I don't understand." He said innocently.

"What?" Asked Gwen, obviously confused.

Percy responded while looking down at his body, "Why do we have to wear our bed sheets to the senate meeting?"

Gwen just laughed, "It's called toga, Percy. It's been a tradition ever since Rome was fist built."

"Maybe I should ask Lupa."Percy suggested.

Gwen laughed again, "Good lock with that Percy, lady Lupa often threatens to eat legionaries who displease her."

Percy chuckled, "I think I'll be fine. After all, I'm just, as our cousin Apollo would say, too awesome to be eaten by a wolf."

Gwen laughed even harder, "I like you Percy, I think we are going to get along just fine."

Percy grinned in response.

"Now come on," Gwen said while gesturing Percy to the doors of the senate in distance, "We've got a bunch of pain in the ass senators to deal with. Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately, Octavian just woke after you seriously wounded his ego. For Jupiter's sake can't I just have one day, just one gods damn day free from Octavian's annoying rants?"

Percy chuckled again, "That shouldn't be much of a problem, right?"

"The senators sometimes can be extremely stubborn, especially those Lares, some of them were there when the Twelfth Legion was first formed. Don't worry though, I already spoke to Reyna, she will back you, so will Jason, if he wakes up in time for the meeting from that show you guys put on." Gwen replied reassuringly, while flashing Percy another warm smile like how his mother Vesta would always do.

"One thing I'm curious about is," Gwen said slowly, while observing Percy's face carefully, "Reyna seemed to be a bit strange when I mentioned your name, have you guys met before coming to New Rome?"

Percy shock his head while being deep in thoughts, "I have the exact same thoughts. Her name seems familiar, but I don't remember her from my past, must have missed something."

Gwen put a hand on Percy's shoulder in comfort, "You shouldn't worry about it too much Percy. I can tell that Reyna respects you, same goes to most of the legionaries after defeating the best warriors in the legion."

Percy raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

"I can tell when I see a good leader and a warrior Percy, and you are both. The centurions, especially the ones from the first three cohorts have been struggling for power ever since the Battle of Othris. Our two praetors, David fell in battle during the assault, and Samantha retired when the war was over. Jason was raised on shields by the legionaries after defeating the Titan Krios single handedly, and Reyna was rightfully elected by the senate. We've loss lots of men during that battle, and right now we need someone like you in the legion to back our new praetors more than ever. Reyna is going to need you no matter what."

Percy nodded calmly.

"You don't seem surprised at all." Gwen asked as they approached the senate.

"My patrons kept me up to date. Besides, I've seen better."

Gwen's eyes widened in shock, "You mean, you've see someone done better than defeating a Titan single handedly and leading an army to destroy the Titans' black thrones at the age of fifteen?"

Percy just shrugged while pointing the senate with a finger, "Yeah, but it's a log story and I'm sure we'll get there when we need to, now let's go."

**Line Break**

The senators and the legion's senior officers took their seats in the senate, Jason was there while a bandage wrapped around his head.

Before Octavian even started his usual ranting, one of the Lares floated over to Percy scowling, "Centurion Gwen! How dare are you bringing a Graecus into the Senate House of Rome!"

Gwen scowled at the Lar, when she was about to retort, Percy beat her into it.

"What makes you say that?" Percy responded with a calm face.

The Lar glared at him harshly, before spatting at the son of Vesta in Latin, "Vitellius sum custos quintus cohortis una legio ex prima cohorte et Quinti; Tamquam si graece ridere quasi Graece Graecum nomen est, et Perseus!"

Percy scowled at the Lar named Vitellius angrily, before spatting back in Latin, "Stultus es contumeliosus; Quia non sum ego sicut unum spectare aut ridere; Nomen meum, et matrem meam, valde simplex, magna patris paveas. Nunc possum utique unde et dixerimus quinta cohors pessimus arroagnt tam stultus ut te in custodia!"

Vitellius' eyes widened in shock, before hardening again, "Just because you can speak a little Latin doesn't mean you can fool me, Graecus!

Percy narrowed his eyes at Vitellius before reaching forward, grabbing the Lar by the throat, much to the Senate's shock, "Et ego ad te, probas? Ego sum fortissimus Plutonis, cum non placet et patruus, Lar maxime ventus Responsio fratris tui similis. Aut si non possunt, antequam petatis eum replebor romanus sum si vos discere potest aliquid in agro Curabitur saecula supplicium!"

He then stomped his foot on the floor of the senate, opening up a enormous crack straight to the fields of punishment as slammed the back of the now terrified Lar to the ground, right next to the one-way ride to the field of punishment.

"P-Please… Have mercy, I'm sorry… I was mistaken…" The paled ghostly figure of Vitellius stuttered out nervously.

Percy stared at Vitellius harshly, before raising its ghostly body over the crack, "No, I think not."

When the son of Vesta was about to throw the Lar into the crack, a bright glow flashed behind him.

Percy turned to see whatever it was, only to see an twenty-year-old woman with a pair of startling stormy-grey eyes staring at him warningly.

His eyes softened at the sight of his patron, and the crack closed as how it was, as if there was never one in the first place. Percy released his strong grip on Vitellius' throat, and the Lar dropped to the floor soundlessly, while the rest of the senate just stared at them in shock, unable to form words.

**Line Break**

In the next hour, Minerva explained the four quests Percy went on, as well as defending Olympus with a small army of demigods and natural spirits on his sixteenth birthday. She then told the senate about how Vesta adopted Percy and how she decided to send him to Camp Jupiter, not mentioning a single word about Greek, Neptune or the betrayal, much to Percy's appreciation.

Every time a senator tries to speak would end up with Minerva glaring at him murderously or shouting about stupid Rome and how she will make every single Roman suffer in the slowest, most painful way her oversized brain contains.

After warning the senate to never cross her or her favorite cousin (I know, surprising right?), Minerva teleported back to Olympus, leaving a room full of stunned and scared Romans.

Reyna cleared her throat once her got over her initial shock and went over the minor affairs concerning the city and the legion first with Jason, before reporting to the senate about the damage caused to the coliseum thanks to our dearest Jason Grace and Percy Jackson.

The discussion went on for quite a while about plans to fund for the re-build as well as the new designs of the coliseum.

Reyna then eyed Gwen and Percy meaningfully, who both gave Reyna a small nod before she spoke up, "As you already know, there is an opening for the junior centurion of the fifth cohort that needs to be filled after Jason Grace was promoted to the praetor a few weeks ago. Normally, we would fill such post with legionaries who have already served for years, but under the current circumstances, centurion Gwendolyn of the fifth cohort, praetor Jason and myself have all agreed that the new junior centurion of the fifth cohort will be Perseus Jackson, after the combat skills he displayed in his test earlier as well as lady Vesta's word."

The senate was filled with chaos as the senators shouted out their opinions on the matter. Both Jason and Reyna tried to quiet them down, but no success. Percy rolled his eyes when he realized what Gwen has meant by the senators being a pain in the ass.

He slammed his foot onto the ground, shaking earth slightly as he called for order, earning appreciating glances from both praetors.

"Now," Reyna started, "As the praetor of the legion, I have the right to fill ranks of the legion with officers I deem suitable. With the recommendation of centurion Gwendolyn as well as the agreement of my colleague Jason, I have made a decision of the matter and it is final. Perseus, please come forward."

Grinning, Percy got off his seat and walked up next to Reyna and Jason. The daughter of Bellona turned to Octavian with an expectant look. The auger opened his mouth to argue, but a murderous glare from Jason shut him up for good.

Grudgingly, Octavian made his way to Percy.

"Hold out your arm." Octavian said bitterly while Percy just smirked at the auger.

Octavian raised his hands high, "We _accept_ Perseus Jackson, Son of Vesta, Champion of Apollo, Diana, Mercury, _Minerva_ and _Pluto_, Ambassador of Mercury to the Twelfth Legion Fulminata for his first year of service. Do you pledge your life to the Senate and People of Rome?"

"I do." Percy said firmly.

"Senatus Populusque Romanus!" The senate shouted loudly in unison.

Fire burnt on Percy's skin as his tattoo was being branded. Octavian stared at Percy's face, in search for any sign of pain, only to see the son of Vesta smirking smugly at him, much to the legacy of Apollo's terror.

The flame died as the new marks became clearly visible on Percy's arm: SPQR, The Senate and People of Rome, with an image of his mother Vesta's hearth. In a line next to it were a series of much smaller images, Apollo's sun, Diana's moon, Mercury's Caduceus, Minerva's owl and Pluto's Helmet of Darkness, with six stripes, representing five years of service for Olympus and first year of service for the Twelfth Legion.

Reyna gave Percy a Roman military solute, soon followed by the entire senate, "Perseus Jackson Ave! Filius Vesta, non quis fuerim, Apollinis, Dianae, Mercurius, Minerva, et Pluto, legatus Mercurii, centurio cohortis quinta legio Fulminata!"


	6. Chapter 5: Remember Me?

Chapter Five: Remember Me?

Reyna gave Percy a Roman military solute, soon followed by the entire senate, "Perseus Jackson Ave! Filius Vesta, non quis fuerim, Apollinis, Dianae, Mercurius, Minerva, et Pluto, legatus Mercurii, centurio cohortis quinta legio Fulminata!"

The rest of the meeting was a blur, Percy didn't bother to pay any attention to the senate and burried himself in thoughts.

Why did Vesta send him here?

What really happened in Alaska?

Where has he seen Reyna before?

Why does he feel like Hazel should be dead?

What the Hades is really going on?

Percy stared out of the senate's window, thunders boomed loudly as lightning flashed wildly. A storm is coming, bigger than anything anyone has seen before, and nobody can escape it.

Line Break

"… and there has been no major monster activities around camp ever since the fall of Othris." Jason said as he concluded the senate meeting.

"Wait!" Percy called out when Reyna was about to dismiss the senate, drawing many attentions, "After this meeting is over, I need a word with praetor Reyna, alone." Said Percy will sending a meaningful look at Reyna, who seemed surprised at first, but quickly nodded.

"Does anyone else has anything to added?" Reyna asked.

Many shock their heads.

"Then this meeting is adjourned." Reyna announced loudly as the senators got off their seats, returning to whatever they were doing before the meeting.

Line Break

"You want a word with me?" Reyna asked, more likely stated emotionlessly as she approached Percy with an unreadable expression.

Percy nodded, before gesturing, "Walk with me?"

Reyna flashed him an incredulous glance, but followed Percy anyway.

The pair walked on the streets of New Rome silently, Percy raised his eyes at the architectural structures, before finally breaking the silence, "Incredible, isn't it?"

"Indeed it is," Reyna nodded, "What is it that you want to talk to me about?"

Percy sighed, "How did you know me?"

Reyna's eyes widened a bit, but she quickly wiped out any evidence of emotions being led loose.

"What do you mean how did I know you?" Reyna questioned in an ignorant tone.

"Cut the crap praetor," Percy answered directly, "I know we've met before. Don't lie to me, I'm champion of the Goddess of Wisdom. I could tell it from how your face would darken every time my name is mentioned or when I'm in your presence. Also, your reaction when you first saw me with my mother in Principia was rather obvious."

Reyna sighed, "Fine, does the name C.C. ring a bell?"

Percy's eyes widened as memories of his adventure through the Sea of Monsters during his second quest flashed into his mind, "You were on Circe's island!" He half-shouted in utter surprise.

Reyna nodded, "Yes. My sister Hylla and me lived there for our entire lives until you destroyed Circe's SPA with your female companion back when I was twelve." She said bitterly at the mention of her old home being destroyed.

Percy's face darkened when her was mentioned, "For what is worth Reyna, I'm sorry. I was a guinea pig back then, and that bitch was the one who fed Mercury's vitamins to all those vile pigs who destroyed your home."

Reyna's mouth formed a small "O" shape, but quickly closed it as she regained her composure, "I never knew you Circe turned you into a guinea pig. I guess I can't blame you since it wasn't your fault, and even it was, you wouldn't have had a choice. I have one question though, why would you call your companion a bitch? If I remembered it correctly, you two seemed close."

Percy's fist clenched, before sighing, "I suppose you would already know this since you are the praetor of New Rome with access to all Rome's darkest secrets and you were working for Circe. Regardless, I need you to swear on River Styx to never repeat what I'm about to tell you without my consent."

"I swear on River Styx to never repeat what you are about to tell me without your consent under any circumstances."

Percy nodded in return, "Ever heard of the Greeks?"

Reyna shot him a confused glare, even though she has an idea where this conversation is leading to, it's just too crazy.

"Well," Percy continued slowly, "If you know your history well, then you would know that there were the Greeks Gods before the Roman Empire conqueror Greece. After the fall of Greece, the Greeks Gods were worshipped as well, but with different names, and some of them with very different personalities."

Reyna nodded, waving Percy to continue.

"How do you think the Roman Gods were even here? The Greek Gods are real. The only moved to Rome from Greece, the location of the original Mt. Olympus after the fall of Greece, and adapted their new personas. For example Artemis became Diana, Hades became Pluto etc. However, their old personas, which we call their Greek equivalents didn't just go away. The Gods still have two forms, and they sire demigod children in their both Greek and Roman forms, while many minor deities only belong two one pantheon, your mother Bellona for instance."

Reyna's jaw dropped, "Are you telling me this because you are a Greek?" She questioned suspiciously.

Percy clenched his jaw, "No. I was a Greek, a son of Poseidon no less, but not anymore."

Reyna raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

Percy gestured Reyna to move, "Come on, we'd better take this conversation to somewhere private, you know anywhere we can talk?"

Reyna nodded, "Yes, my house on the Via Principalis."

Line Break

"As I was saying," Percy continued once they reached Reyna's house, "The Gods have two aspects, and they are a lot more active in their Greek aspect. Unknown to the Romans, after the WWII, Apollo's oracle called the Oracle of Delphi issued a prophecy saying a half-blood child the eldest Gods, meaning Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto will make a choice that will either save or end the era of Gods when whoever it is reaches sixteen."

Reyna nodded, curious about Percy's story.

Percy chuckled a bit, before his face darkened again, "I still remember that damn prophecy that ruined the first half of my life. A half-blood of the eldest Gods, shall reach sixteen against all odds, and see the world in endless sleep. The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. A single choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze. Huh, I can't even count how many people died because of that stupid prophecy. Yes, that was me."

Reyna stared at Percy in shock, unable to imagine the son of Vesta in front of him must have been through in his life before.

"When I was twelve, Jupiter's Master Bolt and Pluto's Helmet of Darkness both went missing. Naturally, they blamed me who just got thrown into the whole madness of the world of Greek mythology. They threatened each other with the third world war, and I had to lead a quest to retrieve their symbols of powers. I was after retrieving the bolt and the helmet that we discovered the identity of the thief, Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes, also the fact that Saturn was rising."

Reyna nodded in acknowledgement.

"There is one other thing you need to know first. There was another demigod who was in the line of the candidate of the prophecy before I was born. My cousin and best friend, Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and Jason full blood sister. You see, Jason was born to Jupiter and Thalia was born to Zeus. The American Civil War was actually a clash between Greeks and Romans which resulted in the victory of Rome. The entire demigod population was almost wiped out from the surface of Earth and that's the reason the Gods created the mist. Not to shield mortals from our world, but to separate the Greeks and Romans, making sure neither will ever remember or encounter each other. The Greek equivalent of Camp Jupiter is on the other side of the country, in Long Island actually, and it's a fly on the wall comparing to New Rome."

Reyna smiled proudly at that.

"Thalia was five years older than me. Pluto sent a small army of monsters after her when she was on the run, and she fell at the hands of my least favorite monster in history, the Fury Alecto. Before she died, her father Jupiter turned her into a pine tree to preserve her soul. A magical border that protects Camp Half-blood from monsters was created ever since. After the events of my first quest, Luke poisoned Thalia's tree. Without the borders, Camp Half-blood was wide open to any monsters, and Saturn could easily send an army to attack. So, I sneaked onto a quest and helped to retrieve the Golden Fleece in the Sea of Monsters."

Percy paused to catch his breath, before continuing, "What we didn't predict was that, the Golden Fleece didn't only heal Thalia's pine tree, but herself as well. When she fell on Half-blood Hill, she was only twelve, and after the fleece healed her, she was only a few month away from sixteen since a tree ages too, only slower than humans."

Reyna gasped, "That's Saturn's plan! He will either have an exposed camp or another chance to manipulate the prophecy!"

Percy nodded, "Yes, you have no idea how manipulative that evil son of a bitch can be. The next summer, Thalia, myself and that bitch Annabeth went to a boarding school to retrieve two powerful demigods a faun found, in the end we ran into a Manticore. Diana's hunters showed up but too late. That bitch was captured, a few days later, we found out Diana was captured too on a solo hunt to hunt down a very ancient monster called "The Bane of Olympus". Another prophecy I remember, 'Five shall travel west to the Goddess in chains. One shall be lost in the land without rain. The Titan's curse one must withstand. One shall perish by a parent's hand.'"

Reyna's eyes widened, "You don't mean…"

Percy nodded, "Yes, I do. We later discovered that the Titan Atlas escaped his burden under the sky by forcing Diana to hold it on Mt. Despair, which happened to be in the same location as the new Mt. Othris. During our journey west, the newest hunter, Bianca Di Angelo died, and we discovered the monster Diana was hunting was the Ophiotaurus. On Othris, I held the sky in Diana's place so she could put Atlas back under the sky. Unfortunately, another friend of mine, Zoe Nightshade, the lieutenant of the hunt died by Atlas' hand. One shall perish by a parent's hand. She knew it all along, but she came anyway."

Tears are now streaming down Percy's cheek uncontrollably at the mention of his dead friends. He wiped them away before apologizing, "Sorry."

Reyna nodded, wondering what kind of friend the son of Vesta considered Zoe to be.

"The next summer, I was informed that the Titans plan to invade camp using the Labyrinth. So I went on a quest to find Daedalus and convince him to not give Ariadne's String to the Titan army. After a few long, agonizing weeks we found him with the guide of a clear sighted mortal. We were too late, but we did convince Daedalus to help us to defend camp. The battle was one of the toughest I've ever seen. We were outnumbered almost 1:3, but we just kept fighting. Even that, it wasn't enough. In the end, Daedalus had to kill himself, destroying the Labyrinth in the process along with the monsters in them. Also, I discovered Luke Castellan was hosting Saturn."

Reyna gasped, "How can a mere demigod possibly hold the essence of the Titan lord?"

Percy chuckled, "That's the million dollar question, isn't it? A few weeks later, a friend of mine found out that to do so, he had to bath in River Styx."

Reyna gasped again, before her gaze become questioning.

Percy just nodded, "Yes, I bathed in Styx as well a week before my sixteenth birthday. Things were far worse than the First Titan War. You see, I accidently blew up Mt. St. Helens after discovering the Telkines were re-forging Saturn's Scythe, in attempts to destroy it. Unfortunately, the blade survived, and Typhoon, who just happened to be imprisoned under that mountain awoke in the process. The Gods, who weren't nearly as powerful as they were had to fight Typhoon on the other side of the country while Saturn's army launched an attack directly on Olympus in Manhattan. All we had were forty demigods, thirty hunters and around a hundred natural spirits and Satyrs against an army of five hundred monsters and two hundred demigods. We held them back for days, which was a miracle really. By my sixteenth birthday, we were down to less than twenty demigods even with the Ares campers who joined the battle later, a little over ten hunters and very few natural spirits and Satyrs left. Typhoon was only hours away from New York, and Saturn almost, almost had enough power to consume his true form again. We were pushed back to the Empire State Building, and the fight came down to the throne room of Olympus. I made my choice, choosing to trust Luke and handed him my dagger who fought Saturn with his will and stabbed his Achilles heel, destroying Saturn in the process, while Nico and myself convinced our fathers, Pluto and Neptune to join the fight, sending the storm giant back to Tartarus in the end."

Percy chuckled at Reyna's shocked face, "I believe the legion was striking Othris while we defended Olympus, right?"

Reyna nodded, "We always presumed that Saturn went back into Tartarus with the destruction of his throne, so that's why."

Percy nodded again, "After the battle, they offered me godhood."

Reyna's jaw dropped again, "WHAT?"

Percy just laughed, "Yes Reyna, I could have been a God. I wonder what would it have been like if I didn't turn it down."

"Why would you do that!"

"For the sake of demigods of course. I forced the Gods to claim all their demigod children at the age of thirteen, and build cabins for every single immortal deity, major or minor. I made them to spare the minor Gods to joined the Titan's cause knowing the Gods had it coming themselves. Thrones were built for Vesta and Pluto on Olympus as well."

Reyna nodded, "Then why are you here?"

Percy's face darkened, "Ever since then, everyone at camp treated me like a freak or an outcast, excluding a few. That girl who was with me on Circe's island back then was my best friend, and she started to feed people lies about me. A few weeks later, that paranoid son of a bitch Jupiter summoned me to Olympus and accused me that I would betray them in the future because I was too powerful and refused to become one of them. Jupiter, Juno, Venus, Mars and Bacchus, even my own father Neptune voted for my banishment. Only Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Minerva, Pluto and Vesta voted against the decision. Ceres and Vulcan abstained and they apologized to me later because Jupiter threatened to kill every single one of their demigod children had they supported me."

Reyna's face morphed into both disbelief and shock, but Percy continued before she could make any comment.

"What's worse is, Jupiter cursed me, with immortality. Not hunter immortality, more like God immortality. So technically, I'm a God without any domain or Godly power whatsoever, more like an immortal demigod who can't die and has to suffer in misery for the rest of the eternity. I'm sure Jupiter would have tossed me into Tartarus had a few Olympians not threatened him with war."

Reyna shot the son of Vesta in front of her a look of pity, it's a wonder how a person can still be sane after everything he's been through.

"After that, I visited my mortal parents, only to find out that they've left for Canada, saying they just had a perfect mortal little girl and they don't need a freak in their lives anymore. I spent the next few weeks or so hunting around the country with Diana and her hunters. It was fun, but eventually I had to leave before Jupiter finds out and gives them trouble. A few more weeks later, Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Minerva, Pluto and Vesta visited me and told me of the Romans. They all blessed me, or in Vesta's case adopted me. You must know that they did so in their Roman equivalents minus Athena but I think you know why. My mother adopted me as Vesta, not Hestia, and since I've relinquished my title as son of Poseidon, I'm a Roman now, therefore I can find a new home at Camp Jupiter."

"Well," Percy concluded as he looked at his watch, "I'd better get back to my cohort, see you around."

With that, Percy Jackson left Reyna's house.


	7. Chapter 6: Victory For The Fifth!

Chapter Six: Victory For The Fifth!

"Well," Percy concluded as he looked at his watch, "I'd better get back to my cohort, see you around."

With that, Percy Jackson left Reyna's house.

Jogging his way back to the fifth cohort's barrack, Percy almost ran into Gwen on his way back.

"Gwen!" Percy called out.

Gwen jumped a bit in surprise, reaching for her Gladius in the process. Her facial expression clearly relieved when she saw it was only Percy.

"Percy," She greeted calmly, "You startled me. I take you've just finished your talk with Reyna?"

Percy nodded, "What was that all about."

"I just came back from a meeting with the other centurions from the third and the forth to discuss the strategies."

"And?"

Gwen sighed, "As usual, the fifth will be attacking the fortress first to draw the first and the second cohorts' attentions, while the third and the fourth watch as being crushed for amusement. Leo and Frank wanted to help, but their cohort is pissed with you choosing us over them"

Percy shock his head.

Gwen raised an eyebrow at him, "Why did you choose the fifth cohort anyway? We are considered the worst cohort in the legion and nothing more but laughing stock and human shield. You could have chosen any cohort you wanted, even the first."

Percy chuckled, "Why start with the best? What's the fun with that? Why not start with the worst and turn them into the best step by step yourself! I don't want to have people's respect because I'm in the so called "Best" cohort, I want to earn it. Besides I'd rather die than work under Octavian. And those centurions from the second are just douchebags."

Gwen's eyes widened in shock, before replying seriously, "Interesting reasoning Percy, that's a very un-Roman thing for you to do. I look forward to work with you."

Gwen then chuckled a bit, "Oh I bet Piper is going to kill Octavian when she finds out about this, that idiot just cost her the best recruit I've ever seen."

Percy laughed too, "Yeah, I'd like to cut out his silver tongue and shoved it down his throat myself as well."

Gwen laughed again, "Well, you'll have to get in the line. You have about the entire New Rome ahead of you."

Percy just smiled, "Come on, let's get back to our cohort. I'd say winning the war games tomorrow would be a good start."

Gwen shock her head a bit, "Good luck Percy, you are going to need it. The fifth hasn't won a single war game ever since I first came to the legion."

Percy's face morphed into a serious expression, "We can do it, trust me."

Line Break

The fifth cohort line up at the sight of their centurion. Percy, however, stood beside Gwen, much to their confusion.

"Legionaries!" Gwen announced loudly in a commanding tone, "Today during senate meeting, Reyna has chosen the new junior centurion of this cohort! Allow me to officially introduce you to my new co-centurion, Perseus Jackson, Son of Vesta, Champion of Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Minerva and Pluto, Ambassador of Mercury! Percy has been performing tasks for Olympus in the last five years, lady Diana and lady Minerva vouched for him themselves, he is to treated with respect just as I am."

The legionaries of fifth cohort stared at Percy for a few seconds in shock, before saluting in unison, "Ave, centurio cohortis legionem quintam of Jackson Perseus fulminata Romanum!"

Percy saluted back, "Thank you everyone. Now, I heard that we are going to play the war games tomorrow and fifth has won for years. Well, I don't like it, and I plan to change it. Those idiots from the first and the second cohort take us for granted, and we are going to show them just how wrong they are tonight. Who's with me?"

The legionaries stared at Percy in disbelief before smashing their shields against the ground loudly.

Percy grinned, "Good. Dakota, when the game starts I need you to lead the fifth into an attack to draw defenses. Hazel and Gwen, you girls are with me."

Line Break

"Percy, are you certain this can work?" Gwen whispered quietly as the trio of demigods sneaked their way into a secret tunnel Hazel found.

"Positive," Percy replied firmly, "Hazel knows her way around underground and we can take out every single soldier Octavian has on us. Besides, Dakota has most of them occupied right now."

Hazel nodded in confirmation and led Percy and Gwen further into the tunnel. After a few more minutes, she held out a hand to halt the pair behind her and pointed above them as ground started opening up.

"Why can't we just tunnel straight into the fortress?" Gwen asked, confused.

Hazel shock her head, "The engineers were smart. The walls went all the way down to the bedrock."

"And if we can go through the wall, do you think we can keep going from there?" Percy asked.

Hazel nodded, "Yes, but why? It's not possible."

Percy smirked, "Everything is possible cousin, it's only yet to be done."

Both Hazel and Gwen stared at him, more confused than ever, but Percy just grinned and grabbed their hands.

Without warning, shadows engulfed their bodies as the trio disappeared into darkness, only to reappear on the other side of the wall.

Gwen dropped to a knee, panting hard while Hazel just stared at Percy with wide eyes, "How did you just do that?" She asked.

Percy smirked again, "It's called shadow travelling. I'll teach you some other time, we'd better get moving now, I have no idea Dakota can hold on up there."

Hazel nodded, "Yeah, let's go."

The trio kept venturing through the tunnel for a few more minutes until Hazel gestured them to stop again. She pointed to an opening with a set of stairs leading into the fortress.

Percy nodded and went up first, soon followed by Hazel and Gwen.

They walked in silence until they spotted a group of five unfamiliar demigods on patrol. Percy grinned and uncapped Anaklusmos, while Hazel and Gwen unsheathed their Spatha and Gladius respectively.

Not making a sound, the trio sneaked onto the demigods. Percy slammed the hilt of Anaklusmos onto the back of one of the demigods' head before turning his arm to connect his elbow with the head of another demigod.

With a loud thuds, the two demigods hit the ground. The others turned only to be hit on the head hard by the blunt of Gwen's Gladius as swept off their feet by Hazel's ridiculously long Spatha before having a foot stomped on his face.

The trio continued to move forward until they came out to an opening. From the fortress, they could see the first and the second cohorts firing water cannons at the legionaries from the fifth cohort who were only barely able to keep their lines of shields together.

Percy grinned evilly before waving his hands at the direction of the water cannons. The cannons all turned, much to the defenders' confusion and the fifth's relief, then opened fire directly at the first and the second cohorts.

Closing his eyes to concentrate, Percy closes his fists, causing the streams of water to burst out even more rapidly, dunking and putting dozens of legionaries out off combat at once.

The fifth cohort quickly got over their shock and followed Dakota into charge, pouring into the fortress and engaging the legion's finest soldiers in combat.

Percy dropped to a knee, panting hard, clearly exhausted while Hazel and Gwen just stared at him with wide eyes.

He turned to look at them, opening his eyes as they temporarily flickered into a bright sea green before shifting back to the usual flaming orange again.

"You are a son of Neptune!" Hazel gasped.

Percy's face hardened for being called a son of the sea god, "I'm no son of Neptune. My mother is Vesta and I have no father."

Gwen nodded and eyed Hazel to keep her from saying more things that would just make Percy snap.

"Let's go." Percy ordered emotionlessly and the trio found another set of stair which led them down in a different direction.

They ran into a room and saw a few legionaries from the first cohort playing mythomagic, the game Nico used to play once.

Percy smirked as darkness suddenly engulfed the room, causing the surprised demigods to scream in panic.

"Oh don't let us bother you," Percy said casually as he shadow travelled right in front of the demigods, "We'll just grab your banner and be on our way."

The legionaries quickly reached for their weapons and tried to stand up, key word, tired. Only to find they couldn't move their legs in anyway. They looked down to see canes wrapped around their ankles and legs while the plants kept growing rapidly. Some managed to cut a few canes off with their daggers, but more canes would take their places.

Percy turned to see Gwen who was smirking wildly at her master piece and gave her a thumb-up. Raising his hand, Percy called down a blast of lightning and sent it flying at the panic legionaries who passed out almost immediately at the shock of thousands volts of electricity.

Also grinning, Hazel lunged forward and grabbed the banners then followed Percy and Gwen out. They came across a few more guards, but nothing they couldn't handle. Followed by a loud cheer from the fifth, Percy ran out off the fortress first with a bright smile on his face, soon followed by Gwen and Hazel who had the banners in her hands.

"Victory for the fifth!" Gwen shouted, soon followed by every single legionary in the fifth cohort.

Hazel just laughed happily as the Mural Crown was given to her. Never before during her time in the legion had she been this happy.

The cheers came to an abrupt stop with a loud scream.

_Well, hello everyone!_

_What do you think?_

_To update faster and more, I need more reviews, so review!_

_A little spoiler, expect the presence of two Olympians in the next chapter._

_Thanks for reading_

_have a nice day_

_and til the next time!_

_T.C. ya!_


	8. Chapter 7: Hello Again Old Friends

Chapter Seven: Hello Again Old Friends

"Victory for the fifth!" Gwen shouted, soon followed by every single legionary in the fifth cohort.

Hazel just laughed happily as the Mural Crown was given to her. Never before during her time in the legion had she been this happy.

The cheers cam to an abrupt stop with a loud scream.

Jason and Reyna quickly rushed towards the direction towards the scream, only to see a protective circle being formed by the fifth cohort. Inside the circle, Octavian was screaming for his dear life while an enraged Percy Jackson drove _Anaklusmos_ through Octavian's right shoulder, imbedding the legacy of Apollo into a wall.

"Percy!" Jason shouted, but the son of Vesta just ignored his cousin as he twisted his blade slowly in Octavian's shoulder, causing the poor auger to scream even more loudly while two children of Apollo tended a fallen legionary on the ground.

"PERSEUS JACKSON!" Reyna yelled, causing the enraged centurion to finally turn away from Octavian.

"What's going on?" Reyna demanded.

"That coward," Percy spat angrily while pointing a finger to the terrified Octavian, " Stabbed Gwen in the back with his pilum purposely after the games were over!"

Octavian's body is now shaking in fear, but before he could defend himself, the medic who was tending Gwen shock his head sadly, "It's no use, she's gone."

Percy led out a painful scream and grasped the hilt of _Anaklusmos_. He then pushed his blade down forcefully, severing Octavian's right arm clean off his shoulder while the auger screamed again.

"Percy!" Jason cried out, "How do you know for sure it's him?"

"Because I saw it with my own eyes!" Percy shouted, "That coward sneaked onto Gwen from behind and stabbed her before I could shove her out off the way."

"There," Percy continued and picked up a pilum on the floor before tossing it to Jason, "Gwen was stabbed by a pilum from the first cohort, while Octavian here, doesn't have one."

Reyna just stared at the scene in front of her unfold in disbelief, "Who else saw it?"

"I did." Said an angry voice from behind. Reyna turned to see a certain son of Bacchus who looked ready to tear Octavian apart with his bare hands.

Reyna raised an eyebrow at him but another voice cut in, "I did too."

A small figure slide down from the wall of the fortress on a rope, revealing the mad face of Piper McLean.

"I saw the attack happened exactly how Percy described it, I swear it on River Styx."

Jason now looks murderous as sparks of electricity danced wildly his around his body. He lunged forward and brought his hand down angrily, blasting Octavian with a massive bolt of lightning that would make Jupiter jealous, "You son of a bitch!"

Before Jason could blast Octavian again, a loud gasp came beside him, he turned and his jaw dropped.

Gwen was alive and breathing, looking around confused, "Um… Can anyone tell me exactly what's going on? And why is everyone staring at me like I'm an alien?"

"Gwen," Dakota answered, his voice cracked, "Y-You were dead."

"What?" Gwen exclaimed loudly, "But I feel very much alive!"

"Gwen," Reyna questioned calmly, "What do you remember."

Gwen growled as she put a hand over for forehead, experiencing a major headache, "Oh Gods. I remember Charon asking me for Denarius for ferry, then I saw a door behind me and I walked trough it. Then… Then I'm here."

"Impossible…" Percy muttered.

Reyna glanced at him questioningly, but Percy just shock his head, "Let's just pray to the Gods that I'm wrong."

"Now," Said Percy evilly with a twisted grin stretched on his face, making everyone, including Reyna shiver at the amount of evilness Percy's voice possessed, "For this murderer."

Percy held out his right hand, summoning the silver hunting knife he got from Artemis that Zoe used to carry and aimed it at Octavian's head, only to have a hand put on his shoulder, stopping him from finishing the auger off.

He turned to see a newly revived Gwen staring at him disapprovingly, "Percy, don't."

"He killed you!" Percy argued.

Gwen shock her head while sending Octavian a distasteful stare, "I'm alive Percy. You are better than him, don't be like him."

Percy nodded and closed his eyes in concentration, sending a silent prayer to a certain Olympian.

Not a moment later, a column of fire blasted into New Rome, revealing a huge soldier holding an oversized M16 rifle.

Percy growled at the sight of his least favorite Olympian while the other Romans stumbled back and dropped into a bow, "_Mars_, what fuck are you doing here?"

A few Romans stared at Percy in shock, but the son of Vesta just ignored them as his glare was fixed on the God of War.

"_Punk_," Mars said in an irritated tone, "Wasn't expecting to see you here. You know it's polite for you to bow in the presence of a superior being, right?"

Percy sneered at Mars, much to the Roman's shock, "I'll be sure to bow when I see one then."

Mars' face reddened angrily, "You are going to get a piece of it punk!"

Percy just laughed at Mars' face, "Said the douchebag who got stabbed in the heel by a twelve-year-old demigod five years ago."

Mars flickered into another muscular figure who looked nothing like Mars with a very different aura and a lot more pissed facial expression, "Then I am going to teach you a lesson today, punk!"

Percy laughed again, "Bring it on _Ares_, I've been dying to kick your ugly ass again for years now."

Ares growled loudly and charged with his broad sword, only to meet a certain Celestial Bronze blade, while the Romans just watched the scene unfold in front of their eyes in a mixture of shock, surprise, curiosity and fear.

Soon, all those emotions were replaced by one thing and one thing only, awe. They watched as Ares and Percy locked blades, neither gaining upper hand while Percy's aura power grew more and more intense every second, soon reached the level of a Gods. Surpassing Ares as Percy was, at the moment as powerful, if not more powerful than Jupiter himself, only his mother Vesta was able to out power him on that instant.

Percy and Ares went back and forth. Ares' frustration only grew as Percy deflected every single one of his strike with ease. His movements became faster, wilder and more unpredictable yet harder to parry every time Percy blocks an attack.

Ares, was out of Percy's league in the strength department, that is un doubtable, but other than that, he isn't even a mile close to the son of Vesta. Percy is a far more skilled, intelligent and talent fighter than Ares or Mars when it comes to swordsmanship.

Ares made a powerful swing at Percy's exposed right ribs, only to by blocked by _Anaklusmos_ with ease. Playing dirty, the war god slashed his sword down at Percy's stomach while sending blast of godly energy at Percy's chest, sending the son of Vesta flying.

Ares laughed at Percy cruelly, "Such as a wimp! Know I can see why daddy doesn't want you, son of Vesta. Or should I say son of _Neptune_?" Ares taunted.

Percy's eyes flashed with rage as he waved his hand at Ares, blasting the God of War straight into the tall walls of the fortress with a powerful pure golden energy beam as his eyes, for a second shifted into gold, radiating an immense amount of raw power that would have made Saturn himself tremble, causing the legionaries who were watching the fight between Ares and Percy intensively to drop their jaws.

"I don't care what Jupiter says, you are going down today Ares." Percy growled in rage as he vanished from the spot, only to reappear in front of Ares who just struggled to get back on his feet.

The son of Vesta twisted his ring, transforming it into the most powerful weapon ever built in history. A horrifying aura of power radiating from the blade in its original form as well as its most fearful form, the Bane of the Gods, Kronos' Scythe.

Without warning, Percy slashed his scythe deeply down Ares' chest, causing the God of War to scream in absolute agonizing pain. Litters of golden ichor poured out from Ares' terrifying wound as they turned into red, the blood of mortals.

Percy led out a twisted smirk at Ares' terrified face, "Yes Ares, this blade can kill an immortal for good, e.g. you. You don't go to Tartarus to reform, you fade into the Void immediately and never to return to Earth again."

Percy sighed before driving the Scythe into Ares' other heel, twisting it in the process, giving the war god an identical wound he gave him back on his first quest. He then roughly yanked the blade out of the screaming God of War, "Unfortunately, I can't kill you. Not yet, not today. Guess I'll just have to settle for maiming you then."

Without warning, Percy flipped the blade with a twist of his wrist and drove it through Ares' stomach, not forgetting to give it a good size of cut before ripping it out of his body, "You are lucky I'm feeling merciful today _Mars_. State your purpose here and get the fuck out of my face before I change my mind and kill you instead."

Ares swallowed nervously at Percy before flickering back to Mars. He coughed loudly and blood poured out of his mouth, "I-I'm he-here because… Because t-th-the Doors… The Doors of D-Death ar-are open. T-Thanatos… Thanatos is missing. Tha… That's w-why the girl was… The girl was able to c-come back to… Come back to life. We-We'll inform… We'll inform you on-once we find out where death is…" Mars stuttered out painfully before flashing back to Olympus to try to heal his wounded ego.

Before any Roman could get over their shock and make a comment, a hysterical laughter came from a certain Goddess of Moon who just made herself seen to the Romans, "Well that was certainly entertaining to watch Percy. I'm so proud of you, but I doubt if that's why you called me here for."

Percy's expression mirrored Diana's, "Oh yes milady. You see, we have a traitor who tried to murder a friend of mine, I thought you'd love this."

Diana eyed her cousin in confusion, only to make Percy's grin grow as he whispered something into Diana's ear that only her could hear.

Diana grinned evilly as she made her way to the terrified Octavian.

"P-Please," Octavian stuttered out while stumbling back away from the man-hating Goddess, only to meet a wall of bricks, "Have mercy lady Diana, I-I didn't mean to k-kill h-her."

Diana glared at Octavian harshly, "Be silent _boy_! Only someone related to my fool twin brother Apollo could possibly possess such stupidity!"

Before Octavian could beg for his life again, Diana snapped her fingers. A silver glow engulfed Octavian's body and when it died down, Octavian was gone.

In his place was… An one-arm jackalope!

Dead silence engulfed the legion before a hysterical laughter abruptly broke it. All eyes turned to Percy who was clutching his stomach, laughing his head off. A few moments later, he was joined by the entire Twelfth Legion.

"N-Nice…" Jason muttered between gaps of his laughter.

"Oh Gods… My stomach hurts…" That would be Leo.

Even Diana was laughing like there is no tomorrow herself.

"Alright everyone," Percy said once he manage to calm himself down, "Bid your final farewells to Octavian if you wish. If not back to your normal activities."

Once everyone took their cue to leave, Percy spoke up, "What am I doing here, really?"

Diana shock her head apologetically, "I'm sorry Percy, but you'll have to figure that out by yourself. For now, earn people's trust and respect at camp and get Rome ready for war mode when you get there."

Percy nodded, "How's the hunt?"

Diana grinned, "Nice. Although do try to sneak out and come visit soon, it's not as fun without you."

Percy mirrored her grin, "How's Thalia?"

Diana nodded, "Thalia is fine, she does miss you though. We all do." She exclaimed.

Percy then whispered to Diana's ear in a soft voice only the Goddess of Hunt herself could here, "And Gracie?"

Diana smile, "Your sister is fine Percy. Oh Gods, she is so adorable. She would make a fine hunter when she grows up, she is a clear-sighted one as well."

Percy nodded, before grinning evilly, "Well, send Phoebe and her wolf my best regards and tell her I've got her a new toy to play with." Percy said as he pointed at Octavian, I mean the jackalope.

Diana had a grin on her face that matched Percy's as she snapped her fingers. A silver light engulfed the jackalope's body before it disappeared, only causing Diana's grin to stretch, "Phoebe just received a new _pet_ and a note to have fun."

Percy grinned wildly at the thought of a vile male like Octavian at Phoebe's hands.

"Have you told her yet?" Percy's face morphed into seriousness.

"Her brother or the Romans?" Diana asked.

"Both."

Diana shock her head, "She only knows about Camp Jupiter, not her brother. I fear the time is not right yet."

Percy raised an eyebrow at Diana, trying to pry as much information regarding to what the Pluto ever is coming in the future, but Diana just glanced him apologetically.

Percy sighed when he figured out he's not going to get anything out of Diana anytime soon, "Do you ever plan to?"

Diana nodded, "I will, eventually."

"If you don't mind milady," Percy interrupted, "I'd like to be the one to tell her."

Diana nodded again, "Of course."

"That brings me to the real reason I called you here milady," Percy said seriously as he put a hand on Diana's shoulder, flashing them both back to his room in the barrack of fifth cohort. A good thing about being a centurion is, you get your own room along with private washing facilities.

"I was on border patrol yesterday," Percy stated as his face morphed into worriedness, "I saw here constellation being reflected onto Anaklusmos under the light of full moon, that's when a heard a loud thud behind me. I turned around, and I saw her there, lying on the floor unconscious. I brought here back and kept here. She hasn't waken up yet." Said the son of Vest with an immense amount of both awe and disbelief in his voice.

Diana raised a questioning eyebrow at Percy, and her jaw dropped when she saw what Percy was talking about. Lying on the bed, was none other than Zoe Nightshade, her former lieutenant.

Slowly, Zoe opened her eyes.

"BIANCA!"

_A relatively longer chapter, done!_

_I know Percy might be overpowered for a bit, but I just hate Ares with my guts._

_Next update I'll be returning to Son of Chaos: Road to Vengeance, so expect the next chapter after that._

_Check out my two other stories if you haven't already, one of them is going to be re-written soon._

_For your information Bianca didn't go for rebirth in this fic and yes Zoe is supposed to be in the stars, but I'll explain how she is back._

_Just a quick question, who do you want the seven to be in this fic?_

_Rome is going to war! Rome is going to war!_

_SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS!_

_Review, have fun and til the next time!_

_By the way good me luck on my exam the day after tomorrow, I must have hit my head pretty hard when I chose art because I totally suck at it._

_T.C. ya!_


	9. Chapter 8: Truth Out Off Shadows

Chapter Eight: Truth Out off Shadows

"I was on border patrol yesterday," Percy stated as his face morphed into worriedness, "I saw here constellation being reflected onto Anaklusmos under the light of full moon, that's when a heard a loud thud behind me. I turned around, and I saw her there, lying on the floor unconscious. I brought here back and kept here. She hasn't waken up yet." Said the son of Vest with awe and disbelief.

Diana raised a questioning eyebrow at Percy, and her jaw dropped when she saw what Percy was talking about. Lying on the bed, was none other than Zoe Nightshade, her former lieutenant.

Slowly, Zoe opened her eyes.

"BIANCA!"

Diana's jaw dropped again, while Percy quickly extended both his arms to hold Zoe's shoulders firmly, keeping her in place, "Zoe!"

Slowly, Zoe's breathing and heart rate slowed down as she turned to the source of the voice, adding to her confusion, "Percy? Lady Artemis? Why-What are you doing here?"

Diana flickered back to her Greek form at the mention of the name Artemis and looked at Zoe with concern, "Zoe, how are you here? What do you remember?"

Zoe put her hand onto the two sides of her head as memories of events took place earlier flashed back into her mind, giving her a major headache.

"Bianca," Zoe stuttered out as soon as she could think straight, "Oh Gods! We have to save her!"

"Zoe," Percy stated reassuringly as his hand glowed in a warm orange to unease the former huntress' stress, "Slow down. What happened?"

Zoe took a deep breath to calm herself down, before replying, "I was practicing archery in Elysium with Bianca. We heard rumors about the Doors of Death being opened so we decided to check it out. We were ambushed by a group of monsters. I don't know how but they managed to sneak out of Tartarus and abducted us. They took Bianca away and, I don't know, I just felt like an indivisible force dragged me through… Through a set of doors, it was like… It was like my life was being sucked out of my body."

Percy's eyes widened, "This isn't good. How were you in Elysium anyway? I thought you were in the sky."

Zoe nodded, "I was but apparently only 1/3 of my soul was on Ouranos' court, the other 1/3 went to the Underworld."

"Where is the rest?" Artemis asked.

Zoe shocked her head while Percy took Anaklusmos out of his pocket, "I'd say it's here."

"Speaking of which, what can you tell me about the Doors of Death? Monsters will reform instantly if those blasted doors aren't sealed in time. Camp Jupiter will be defenseless against monsters."

Zoe shock her head sadly, "The Doors of Death can only be sealed by closing them from both living and dead sides. We have no idea where the mortal side is, and even if we do, it's no use."

Percy raised an eyebrow at her, "And why would that be?"

"Because," Zoe replied hopelessly, "The Underworld side of the doors, it's in the heart of Tartarus. The deepest, and the darkest place in that hell pit"

"Then we are screwed." Artemis said hopelessly as she lowered her head in defeat.

Percy shock his head, "So far, we've made it through everything the Fates threw at us, and a gods damn door isn't going to stop me. We'll find a way somehow."

"Speaking of which," Percy added curiously, "How is Bianca even in Elysium? I thought she went to rebirth."

"Because," Zoe replied, trying to catch her breathe, "She only made her brother think she was going to choose to reborn. She hid in Elysium when her brother looked for her."

"By the way why are you even at Camp Jupiter? You are a Greek." Zoe added in a clearly confused tone.

Artemis shot her cousin a sympathetic look while Percy's face darkened, "I was once, but not anymore."

After some long explanations, Artemis decided Zoe will stay at Camp Jupiter with Percy as her ambassador for the time being since it's the best way to hide her away from unwanted eyes and she went to explain things to the praetors Jason and Reyna.

Percy, on the other hand decided to have a lovely chat with his cousin.

He walked out of his room and made his way towards his target, a certain daughter of Pluto to be exact.

Line Break

"Hazel."

"Percy! What's up?"

"Look," Percy's voice contained as much seriousness as possible, "I know that you are not supposed to be here. I can sense it. So I'm going to ask you to please tell me how are you here."

Hazel, on the other hand looked somewhat uncomfortable and extremely nervous. Seeing this, Percy put a reassuring hand on his cousin's shoulder, easing her nerves with the power of hearth.

"Hey," Percy said, "Hazel, you are my cousin, you are family. I promise you I won't hate you or tell anyone anything about your past if you tell me. But please, this could be vital if we are to survive what's coming at us next."

Hazel nodded, and told Percy about her early life in New Orleans, her life after moving to Alaska, her ability and curse as well as how Gaea used her to summon gems for weeks to resurrect her Giant son Alcyoneus, Bane of Pluto, and how she sacrificed herself to stop Gaea from awaking. She took part of the blame so both her mother and her went to Asphodel, until a few weeks earlier Nico broke her out of Asphodel when the Doors of Death opened, leaving out no detail.

In return, Percy told Hazel about his adventures. His quests to retrieve the Master Bolt and the Helmet of Darkness, to search for the Golden Fleece, to rescue Diana, to venture through the Labyrinth and the Battle of Manhattan, telling her everything about his life, including Neptune and minus the Greeks.

"Well…" Percy said cheerfully as he chuckled at Hazel's shocked face, "I'd better get going. See you around cousin."

Line Break

Percy took off running. The secret is out, and he has finally been able to put the pieces together. The legion's lost eagle, the reason of Hazel's return, the goddess and the giant, Zoe, Bianca, this new threat and the whole damn reason he's here at Camp Jupiter!

"Gwen!" Percy cried as soon as he reached the fifth's barrack.

"What is it Percy?" Asked Gwen tiredly from a long, exhausting day.

"We've got to see Reyna, now!" Percy said urgently as he grabbed Gwen's arm and raced towards the Principia.

"Okay, slow down! I need a damn break." Gwen half-shouted after being dragged by her co-centurion half way across Camp Jupiter.

"Reyna!" Percy yelled as he knocked on the praetor's house loudly, drawing some unwanted attentions from the _Lares_ and Fauns wondering around, who quickly looked away after receiving a death glare from Percy.

"Uh… This'd better be important Jackson." Reyna exclaimed as she yawned lazily, "I swear to all Gods I will kill you if this is not."

"Yeah, same goes here." Gwen added, annoyed.

"Listen!" Percy shouted, silencing the two irritated demigods as he grabbed both of them by arm, dragging them inside Reyna's house while kicking the door shut.

"I know what happened! Alaska, 1980, the new threat, I've figured it all out!"

Reyna raised an eyebrow at the son of Vesta, "Okay… Mind start explaining?"

"Remember what the survivors of the quest said? 'Goddess', _'Giants'_, _'Earth'_?" Percy asked, the two demigods nodded in return, "Well… After hearing some _tales_ and _rumors_, I know it now."

Percy ignored the questioning look from both Reyna and Gwen when he mentioned _'Tales'_ and _'Rumors'_, resuming, "It's the Mother Earth! The Goddess and Earth they mentioned must have been Terra herself, and the Giant must have been one of her Giant children!"

Both Reyna's and Gwen's jaws dropped, "How can you know for sure?" Gwen asked, "This is no joke. Terra is more than capable to cause more damage than Saturn. If she rises, then it's over."

"Think about it," Percy explained, "Why does no one knows what truly happened? Alaska, it's A-L-A-S-K-A, _the_ land beyond the Gods, nobody knows because the Gods' powers don't reach there. They can't see or sense what happens in a land beyond their powers. It would make sense since the Gods were at war in the 1900s, one of her Giants must have tried to rise in Alaska and the legionaries ventured into Alaska died by Terra's hands."

Reyna shock her head gravely while Gwen was still working on comprehending what she just heard, "You have a point, but even if what you are saying is correct, we don't have enough numbers to fight another war like that. We lost 1/3 of our legionaries in total during a few assaults of the Titan army and the Battle of Othrys, Terra will crush us since we are outnumbered, unprepared and still recovering."

Percy nodded heavily, "You are probably right, but we've won a war before, I don't see how we can't win another."

He then turned directly to Reyna and exclaimed seriously, "I've got a plan, but you'll have to bring this to the senate. You are the only one who can convince them. We need to bring New Rome into pre-war mode. We've got to start building fortifications, ballistae, bombs and traps, mobilize as much soldiers as possible, and increase their training level drastically. Militarize the natural spirits and Fauns here as well, I've seen what they can do in battles, they will be an invaluable asset to the legion if we can do this right."

Reyna nodded, "Rebuilding the coliseum, constructing fortifications and expand the legion, New Rome's exchequer will be empty _very_ soon."

"You know, this is going to be a major headache. The senators will never agree to spend that much Denarii to alter Camp Jupiter into a military fortress right after the war," Reyna said worriedly, "And the Fauns, they are only tramps here, how the Pluto can they be helpful during a battle?"

"Their natural magic is powerful," Percy replied confidently, "With the right time and position they can trap an army, that I'm sure of."

Reyna seemed uncertain, "The senate would never allow it unless we tell them about Terra, but it would only cause panic among the senate as well as the legion."

Percy clenched his jaw, "I'll have to ask lady Diana about that later. If we can't get camp's defenses up, at least find a way to get the legion into pre-war mode, otherwise we'll be doomed when Terra throws whatever she has at us."

Reyna nodded, "I'll try but I can't guarantee anything though, you know how the senators are. On the bright side, at least we won't have to deal with Octavian anymore."

Percy chuckled a bit when Octavian was mentioned, before turning into dead serious, "I believe I don't have to tell you how important it is to keep this between the three of us until the time is right?"

Reyna and Gwen both nodded.

"Wait a minute," Gwen interrupted, "How is it that you and lady Diana's hunters are friends again?"

Percy smiled at that, "You would find out that they can all be great friends and sisters, once you get over the whole man-hating part that is."

Gwen nodded, "And what of lady Diana's ambassador who is visiting? Does she know this?"

"Yes," Percy replied, "Yes she does. But I do trust her enough to know that she knows what to do with this information. She will help us out if needed."

_'Just call a senate meeting tomorrow,'_ Said a familiar voice in Percy's mind, which he instantly recognized as Artemis', _'I'll convince them into agreeing with your plan.'_

'Yeah,' Percy mentally replied, 'More like threatening.'

_'Is there a difference?'_

'Forget about it!'

Feeling Artemis leaving his mind, Percy spoke again, "Call a senate meeting tomorrow Reyna, I've got it covered."

Reyna nodded her head again doubtfully, "Okay, but this is going to have a huge impact on everyone. The city, the senate and the legion, I hope this will work out in the end."

Percy nodded in return, "It will, trust me. There is going to be a war that could potentially end the era of the Gods and wipe out the entire Roman population from the surface of Earth. If we can convince senate to prepare for war right now, many unnecessary casualties will be saved when the war comes."

Reyna nodded.

Line Break

The senate had been a pain, again. Some senators started ranting about war and Denarius, until a few divine beings showed up and threatened their heads.

Things went great in New Rome in the next few weeks. Percy had grown close Jason, Reyna, Piper, Frank, Leo, Hazel, Dakta and Gwen, especially Jason, who was, no doubt brother of Percy's favorite cousin who he misses dearly, Thalia.

Reyna and Piper are a lot alike. They are both fierce warriors, especially with a dagger or a _Gladius_. They even like the same guy! Jason Grace, of course. But let me tell you a secret, Jason likes both Piper and Reyna, but he likes Piper a little more. Now swear on River Styx to keep it a secret because Jason will kill me if he finds out about this!

Hazel and him had became even closer. Percy has been helping her on her powers over the dead and shadows, and she has now became a master of shadows, and she is able to summon an army of dead at her disposal.

To be honest, Percy has mistaken Hazel for Bianca for a few times. They are basically twins, both sweet, kind and caring with black hair and chocolate skin, nothing like what most people would think children of the Lord of Dead to be.

Percy even helped Hazel and Frank to be together. Well… He basically threatened to stuff Frank with loads of kelp, Thalia would have laughed at that. It was ridiculously funny since things had became so awkward between Frank and Hazel and the gang tossed the two lovebirds into a lake nearby when Hazel finally kissed Frank. Percy will be sure to never let either of them to live down with that.

Leo on the other hand is everyone's lame joke cracker, he is the first fire user child of Vulcan in nearly a century, although Percy has more control over flames than the son of Vulcan does.

It is a mystery who Leo likes, some say it's Hazel, some say it's Reyna, some say it's Piper, and according to some extremely unreliable source, Leo has a crush on a mysterious Goddess miles away from New Rome. Percy and Jason even opened a bet on it publically in the legion!

It's not like Leo minds since it's a well known fact that he is a major player in New Rome.

Dakota is a good guy and a descent fighter, when he is not drunk, that is, which is about 5% of day. The fifth cohort's statue in the legion has raised drastically under the leadership of Percy and Gwen after Octavian was _gone_.

Jason and Reyna led Percy take charge of the entire legion's daily training, and although the training Percy gave the legion was, and I quote "_Inhuman_" and "_Fascist_", the legionaries' skills increased drastically as well.

The senior officers of the Twelfth Legion managed to mobilize one hundred retired legionaries, and another one hundred Fauns and natural spirits in total with an enormous amount of Denarius that made many Fauns drool or faint.

With the building of fortifications and ballistae, Camp Jupiter is now an invulnerable fortress. To ease New Rome's economic exhaustion, a fair amount of Denarius were forged in the Temple of Jupiter.

Nico even visited once to see Hazel, and he was overjoyed when he found Percy settling down for a new life at Camp Jupiter.

Of course, none of them was as close to Percy as Zoe was.

Apparently, being able to spend some time with _"The only descent male ever walked on Earth"_ made Zoe's life easier even though she'd missed the hunt and being stuck at Camp Jupiter was only a bit better than being stuck at Camp Half-Blood.

Percy's invulnerability would have eventually left him along with the superior battle reflexes and instincts he got from the Curse of Achilles since his mortal anchor, _Ann… You know who_, was gone. He, however, managed to preserve the curse after finding a new mortal anchor in time. I believe I don't need to say who it, or she, is.

Percy would always laugh internally at how much his life has changed in the past few months. He first survived the prophecy and defeated Kronos, something he always thought he'd never be able to do.

Then he was betrayed by the very people he lied his life over a dozen times to protect, including his best friend and father. He was banished and somehow managed to gain a few powerful patrons, boosting him to the most powerful demigod ever lived, his aura of power even rivaled Poseidon's for a few times he got all emotional.

Lastly, he found a great city resting in San Francisco, and made a new home with new friends he know he can trust even with his trust issues after the great betrayal. He has started a new life and it was the best thing ever happened to him in his entire life. He even told his closest friends about his old life, excluding the word "Greek" and anything relates to it, of course.

Most importantly, he had Zoe back. A trustworthy friend whose death he had always blamed himself for and always missed greatly in secret. Although he's not sure what he feels about her anymore.

His stomach would be filled with butterflies and his cheek would blush a crimson red every time they are close, which happens a lot since they are best friends now. Percy always thought Annabeth was cute, but now he knows what the term "Beautiful" means every time he lays his eyeballs on Zoe.

Just when Percy thought how perfect his life is and how he appreciates everything in it, a blinding flash of light appeared in front of him broke him out of his wonderland, signaling Percy's worst nightmare: His old life that he resented and thought he'd left behind has started to catch up.

_The second longest chapter of this story so far, yah!_

_Hope this explains things, just ask if you have anymore questions._

_Their quests will begin soon._

_Important question: Would you like another civil war between the Greeks and the Romans?_

_T.C. ya!_


	10. Chapter 9: Insanity

Chapter Nine: Insanity

Just when Percy thought how perfect his life is and how he appreciates everything in it, a blinding flash of light appeared in front of him broke him out of his wonderland, signaling Percy's worst nightmare: His old life that he resented and thought he'd left behind has started to catch up.

When the flash of light died down, Percy found himself standing in the legion's war council room for senior officers only. Standing next to him, was his friends Reyna, Jason Gwen and Zoë, looking around in confusion just like he is.

In a distance, someone cleared her throat loudly, causing Percy tot turn abruptly.

He saw Athena, Diana and Vesta looking at them. The others quickly bowed but Percy remained on his feet.

"What's going on?" Percy quickly asked, "Why are we here?"

Athena looked like she wouldn't have came if she had a choice. Understandable, it's still Roman territory. Diana and Vesta on the other hand, looked extremely worried, something they only rarely do. Never, in Vesta's case.

Athena sighed in annoyance before speaking, "We have some news, very bad news, I'm afraid."

Percy raised an eyebrow at the Goddess of Wisdom standing before him, "And what might them be?" He asked carefully.

"Thanatos," Diana intervened, "We've found his location and you are not going to like it, not a bit."

Percy narrowed his eyes.

"Alaska," Diana finished before sighing in desperation, "Thanatos is held in Alaska. Terra is rising and the war is coming. There is more, Juno went missing as well. We are guessing that it's another one of the Giants."

The room was filled with dead silence after Diana dropped the bomb. Jason was working very hard on believing and absorbing what he had heard about Terra, while the others, who already knew Terra was coming were lost in their thoughts.

"Did you just say Juno was abducted milady?" Zoë asked, blinking hard to try to accept the fact that the Queen of Gods was taken by a hostile force against her will.

Diana nodded with unease.

"We are issuing a quest to save Thanatos," Vesta said, "Percy, you are going to lead it."

Percy nodded.

"If you fail," Vesta said worriedly, "All would be lost. An army is marching at Camp Jupiter, led by Polybotes, Bane of Neptune. They will be there in a few days on The Feast of Fortuna. If Thanatos is not freed by then, the monsters will be able to reform instantly as the legionaries will be able to return from the land of the dead as well."

"I won't fail you mother." Percy answered firmly.

"What of Juno?" Zoë asked.

Vesta's face immediately darkened, "My brother Jupiter wants the quest to be led by _the others._"

Jason and Gwen were both wildly confused, but Percy, Zoë and Reyna figured out what Vesta meant immediately.

"But I convinced him to give the quest to Rome as well." Vesta finished.

"If I have a choice, I would leave that bitch to rot in Tartarus," Percy replied, barely controlling his anger, "But apparently I don't, so I'd say we sent two separate quests for Thanatos and Juno."

Vesta nodded sadly.

"That's not the only thing." Diana interrupted.

Percy eyed Diana questioningly.

"Let's just say that…" Diana continued, "Your friend, the daughter of Pluto should be looking for you right now.

Percy nodded thoughtfully, "It's starting, isn't it? The prophecy of seven?"

Vesta's face darkened again.

**Line Break**

"You can't possibly be serious!" Percy shouted at his mother. Usually, he would never do that since a person can't possibly find a nicer mother, but not this time.

"Percy please…" Vesta tried to reason with her son, but she can't even calm him down from his outburst.

"I'm telling right now this is insane mom! And there is no way, absolutely no way in Tartarus I'm going to work with them!"

"Perseus," Athena intervened, "Please control your anger, this is for the best."

"But you can't possibly agree to this!" Percy exclaimed, "You out of all people should know this would never work out milady!"

Athena looked at him firmly, "Look, I don't like this as much as you do, but there is no other way…"

"There has to be!" Percy snapped, "Do I have to remind you why we have those ancient laws Lady Athena? The last time this happened the entire demigod population was almost wiped out of Earth's surface! Rome and Greece never, _never _mix and there is no way I'm agreeing a plan that would be our down fall before we even see Ms. Dirt Mud Face!"

Athena sighed, "I understand why you don't want to do this, but this is our only chance. In order to stand a chance against _her_, we must gather the best heroes of the age, and this is the only way."

"We don't need them! The Twelfth Legion is more than capable of completing the quest ourselves!"

"Percy please," Vesta said gently, "I implore you, please think about this. You are our only hope at uniting the two camps and I am asking you, please, do this for us, for me."

Percy's face softened a bit at those words, "I'm sorry mom. I love you and I will certainly do it if that's an order, but I can't if it's not. I'm sorry, but I just cannot and will not help them, not again, not after what they did to me."

"Perseus, the prophecy made it very clear. '_Foes bear arms'_ doesn't give us much of a choice." Athena tried to reason again.

"Oh don't even get started on the damn prophecy!" Percy finally snapped, "My life was already ruined by one and now another? And _she _of all people has to be one of the seven?" Percy yelled as his voice got louder and louder, wind started blowing rapidly as earth shook violently.

Vesta stepped closer to Percy and muttered some words to Percy as her hand glowed in orange. Moments later, the wind and earthshaking both stopped under Percy's influence.

**Line Break**

It took Vesta and Athena a full hour to convince Percy to work with his former friends from Camp Half-Blood, especially _her_. Although he vowed every single Greek who sets a foot in New Rome would be dead if one of them so much gets on Percy's bad side.

Percy nearly blasted half of New Rome out of existence, literally, when he heard it from his mother. He was surprised that Athena out of all people agreed to this crazy plan which, would probably lead to the extinction of demigods and be their lose cause before the war with Gaea even begins.

Diana on the other hand, filled Jason and Gwen in about the Greeks. To say they were shocked would be the understatement of the year.

What Diana meant earlier became clear as well. Hazel looked like someone she knew just died when she ran into Percy.

It turned out that she had a demigod dream, and she saw Bianca being held captive by Gaea in the original Rome. Nico was captured as well when he tried to rescue his sister. Gaea made it very clear that the children of Hades only have two weeks left to live.

Apparently, it's a trap, and Jason argued that they can't just walk into a trap, but Percy made it very clear that trap or not, he's not going to leave his friends to die, especially when he owed both of them too much to fail either them again.

"What if it's a trap? We might not be able to get them out and Terra will have ourselves as well." Jason argued again, shame he doesn't know how stubborn Percy can be when he makes up his mind on something.

"No," Percy replied firmly, using a tone which clearly meant there is no room for debate.

"But…" Jason tried to get Percy to change his mind, but no avail.

"No buts Jason!" Percy snapped furiously, "A twelve-year-old girl died right after finding the people she can call family and a ten-year-old had to live without his sister after being thrown into the madness of Greek mythology just because I failed to keep a promise! Everything has happened to them, their tragedies and anguish has been no one else's but my own fault, and I will not… I will NOT fail them again. I will not let them die because I'm afraid! No! No friend of mine gets left behind and I'm sure as Tartarus I'm not about to let happen now!"

Percy then stormed away from his cousin, to somewhere most likely to be the training ground so he could take his anger on some poor dummies while Zoë ran after him on his trail.

"Percy!" Zoë yelled, "Wait!"

"What?" Percy snapped at her, which is probably a very stupid thing to do considering Zoë Nightshade won't hesitate to beat the Hades out of you if she thinks she needs to.

Zoë grabbed Percy's arm and slung him over her shoulder, pressing him on the ground hard with her elbow against his throat. Percy glared at her before trying to shove her off him. Key word: _Trying_.

Zoë only glared at the son of Vesta back, not easing her press on Percy no matter what, "Calm down Percy, you need to calm down."

Percy didn't listen, instead he only struggled again, "Let me go."

Zoë shock her head firmly, "You are not going anywhere like this, now calm yourself, this isn't helping anyone."

Percy's glare intensified before his facial feature softened, sighing in defeat, "You are right Zoë, I'm sorry."

Zoë couldn't help but to be soften at the sight she was seeing. She got up and pulled Percy up with her, "Just don't do it again, I'd hate to be there to kick your ass 24/7."

Percy chuckled at Zoë, earning him a glare from the former huntress, "What?" Zoë asked, sounding irritated.

"Nothing," Percy shock his head, "You haven't changed a bit."

Zoë raised an eyebrow at him, "And why is that?"

All the mischievousness vanished from Percy's face, replaced by a somewhat dreamy look, same goes to his voice, "Well, I remember when we met in Maine, I wanted to throw you off the cliff at first," Percy chuckled again, receiving a not-so-gentle punch on the stomach, "Then we got thrown into a crazy quest together and you left the image of the fierce female warrior who is anything but weak and doesn't take any crap from anybody no matter what in my head forever. I could never stop thinking about the one person who taught me the true meaning of-of bravery and loyalty whenever I look at the stars, and…"

Percy however, never got to finish his sentence.

_And he returns!_

_I'm not giving up on my favorite piece of work, if you are wondering._

_Not one of my best chapters and it was a bit rush, I apologize for that but life has been busy._

_A little cliffhanger, oh I love one of these._

_Question of the day: Why do you think Percy never got to finish what he said?_

_As usual, Read, like &amp; Review!_

_I could really use some constructive criticism and words of encouragement or feedback whatsoever at this point._

_Their quest starts in the next chapter!_

_Thank you all for reading_

_have a nice day_

_and til the next time!_

_T.C. ya!_


	11. Chapter 10: The Horn of War

Chapter Ten: The Horn of War

Boom!

A loud sound of explosion echoed through the city of New Rome, soon followed by more.

Legionaries quickly ran for their weapons.

Lines of soldiers marched from the barracks, archers from the second cohort quickly set up a defensive perimeter around the Pomerian Line, covered by heavy ballistae deployed within the borders of Camp Jupiter.

Percy shoved Zoë onto the ground before hitting the dirt himself. More and more booms came as shells descended onto the soil of Rome like raindrops.

Archers quickly took aim and retaliated with their own rain of gold as arrows pierced through the air, intercepting and detonating the artillery shells before they could land. The third cohort arrived shortly afterwards, crossfire of arrows covered the sky of Camp Jupiter.

Ballistae were pushed out of their bunkers and fired above. Massive explosions occurred, fire consumed everything in its path. An enormous shadow descended from the sky as a massive warship materialized into Romans' view.

Gunners quickly aimed and opened fire, ballistae bellowed in rage as artillery shells were fired at the warship accurately. Unfortunately, everything was slammed onto an invisible barrier surrounding the ship as it kept firing at the city and barracks of Camp Jupiter.

Ropes were dropped from the ship as dozens of figures slid their way down. The wore bronze Greek style heavy battle armors and a helmet with red feather attached on it. Some of them had quivers strapped onto their back with bows in their hands. Some of them held a spear and some were equipped with a sword and a shield, all bronze.

Then, it began.

Those warriors charged into the lines of the second and the third cohort as the legionaries struggled to keep them away from their archers. The warriors cut through the lines of shields with ease, more and more Roman dropped to the floor, dead as the warship continued to fire at the lines of the cohorts.

Growling loudly, Percy got back on his feet while Zoë looked at him, concerned.

Percy quickly summoned his Adamantine sword and _Egis_, while Zoe uncapped _Anaklusmos _and unsheathed one of her hunting knives.

"We need to get that ship down." Percy shouted under the loud sounds of explosion while Zoë nodded in return.

Percy grabbed his hand and a bright light engulfed both their bodies. A few moments later, Percy and Zoë both fell on the floor, clutching their heads in pain.

"What the Hades was that?" Zoë asked as she struggled to get back on her feet.

Percy shock his head, while leaning his weight onto his Adamantine blade for support, "I have no idea. I can only assume the barrier blocking the legion's firepower is also blocking teleportation, guess Mercury's blessing won't be much of a use for now."

Percy retracted _Egis _into his watch as his left arm wrapped its way around Zoë's waist, causing her cheek to turn a faint pink while Zoë threw Percy a questioning look.

A pair of wings erupted into life from Percy's sneakers as they patted hard, propelling both Percy and Zoë into air. Percy pushed himself and Zoë all the way to the side of the warship, dodging a few bellowing ballistae in the process.

Percy and Zoë halted a few meters away from the ship and the son of Vesta twisted his ring with his free hand, calling Kronos' Scythe into life. Percy place a hand forward, putting it on the barrier as his hand just bounced off powerlessly.

Coldness reflected from the blade as Percy slammed the tip of the scythe onto the warship's barrier. Ripples spread on the surface of the barrier, and then came a loud Bang! Louder than anything Percy has ever heard before. Glass shattered as the barrier broke, a powerful shockwave blasted Percy and Zoë away.

Clenching his jaw, Percy regained his balance in mid-air and willed the wings to propel him and Zoë forward once again. This time, the dual went inside the warship's defense with ease.

Percy and Zoë landed on the deck with a loud thump. Percy dropped to a knee, panting hard as color left his cheek. Kronos' Scythe is the most powerful weapon ever built, a soul reaper, meaning it is a double blade, meaning it can destroy mountains for you, but it drains the life force of its wielder as the source of power.

It didn't trouble Kronos much since he would sacrifice with mortal blood to keep his symbol of power fresh, but it does to Percy. He is a mere demigod and there is no way he would bath such evil blade in the blood of innocent.

Zoë shoved a portion of Ambrosia into Percy's mouth, earning an appreciative look from the son of Vesta while he recovered his strength. Once Percy was back on his feet again, the dual made their way to the front of the ship.

The warship was well designed. It was armed with ballistae covering 360° of the ship, not leaving one dead angle of fire power. The bridge was at the front of the ship, which is where Percy and Zoë are headed.

From what Percy saw earlier, those warriors are all skilled and very trained, it would take approximately 3-5 Romans for one of them. The Romans' advantage on numbers was cancelled out by the heavy fire support from the warship.

Percy and Zoë had to take out a few security guards on the way, nothing the most powerful demigod ever lived and the greatest huntress ever walked on Earth can't handle. The dual opened the doors to the bridge and Percy almost gasped in shock.

In the bridge stood two people, both covered in Greek style battle armor. One of them was a tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes who has a scar running down his cheek. A sword was sheathed on his belt.

Another was a woman who looked a few years younger than the man. She was tall none the less, curl blonde hair rested on her shoulders while her intense grey eyes seemed to be analyzing everything happening around her. A bronze dagger was tightly held in her grasp.

She wore a fake smile on her face when she saw Percy, "Hey there seawead brain! I see Rome has been treating you well."

Percy growled loudly under his breath, "Annabeth." He said with burning hatred in his voice.

Annabeth then turned to Zoë, speaking cheerfully, "Hello there! Although I thought you should be rotting in Hades right now, it's good to see you again."

"Long time no see Jackson." The tall man said with his sword in his hands, poiting the floor of the bridge, "I see you have found yourself a chick."

Zoë reached for her hunting knives, but Percy knew better. He held her back, "Luke." Percy said with a dangerously low voice.

Loud cracks came from outside the ship, ballistae bellowed in rage as retaliating shells were unleashed on the warship, causing the body of the ship to shake violently without the protection of the magical barrier.

Legionaries marched forward, ripping their enemy's lines apart as angry Romans cut their way to the Pomerian Line.

Luke glanced outside the window while Annabeth spoke up, "It doesn't matter if you won the battle today. This is nothing but a small fraction of our army. Rome will still burn when the Mother Earth awakens, as she and her children will accomplish what the Titan Lord has failed to."

Percy eyed Annabeth warily, moving his hand to his bracelet, "You have been helping Kronos?"

Annabeth waved her hand dismissivly, "Yes, but it matters not now. It was only an act to gain the Gods' trust. We serve Gaea now."

Luke's gaze returned to Percy as the ship shook once again under the violent force of explosion, "Remember this, Percy. Greece and Rome never mix. Everytime they come together, death follows. You have chose those pathetic Olympians while," Luke paused before gesturing to the new figures who just entered the bridge, a few Greek demigods Percy recognized from the survivors of the Battle of Manhattan, and a few unfamiliar faces, all fully armed, "The smarter of the two has chosen the winning side."

"And I will be there to light the fire myself when Rome burns." Annabeth added smugly.

Percy's fist clenched. His eyes scanned around the bridge, he and Zoë were outnumbered by some of the best fighters Percy remembered back at Camp Half-Blood. This is hardly the time or the place for a fight like this. This information could be crucial to the war.

Quickly, the demigods formed a circle around Percy and Zoë, surrounding them within it. _Anaklusmos _extended into a three-feet-tall Celestial Bronze sword in Zoë's hands while _Egis _sprung to life.

Percy pushed Zoë under him as the eyes of Medusa opened, freezing most of the demigods who were too late to cover their eyes on the spot. The power of Medusa petrified those demigods as Luke charged at Percy with his sword out.

A silver hunting knife materialized in Percy's hand as he hurled it at Luke, imbedding deeply into his shoulder. Golden ichor poured out his wound, covering the most of his shirt.

Percy's eyes widened as he was too late to dodge when Luke delivered a hard kick at Percy's stomach, sending him flying while Zoë and Annabeth locked blades.

Percy rolled aside just in time as Luke's sword imbedded into the floor. "Remember this, Jackson." Luke said while pulling his sword out, "You are an immortal, but not a God. It will be the death of you."

Percy's eyes narrowed in defiance as he met Luke's strike with his own. Sparks danced wildy as metals clashed.

The ship shook again, a loud siren sounded in alarm, causing Luke to curse loudly. He flipped over a table and pushed a large red button on the control panel.

A strange sensation came into Percy's mind. Every fibre in his brain is telling him something _really _bad is about to happen. He jumped and wrapped his arms around Zoë shoulder who, just got pushed back by Annabeth.

Percy summoned as much shadows as he could master and wrapped them around his and Zoë's bodies. They dissolved in darkness before they could even land.

**Line Break**

Percy's body hit the ground of New Rome painfully. His stomach felt like it had been twisted into half a dozen knots. Whatever it was Luke did back on the bridge, it made his ship vanish from sight. Must have been some sort of teleportation.

Percy managed to get back onto his feet painfully. He blinked to see Zoë doing the same. Chaos was everywhere. New Rome was burning, barracks were shattered, the city was torn upside down.

The ballistae and anti-air artileries Percy insisted to be built weren't much of use since the barrier of the ship held strong.

He and Zoë had too lean on each other for support, causing Percy to blush slightly. He saw Reyna racing towards them, the dual staggered their way to the praetor.

"Thank Gods you two are alright!" Reyna said with relief present in her voice.

"Listen," Percy said urgently, "We don't have much time. That was an attack planned by Terra. Those people were the Greeks, they are working for Terra now. I suspect there is going to be another lager scaled attacked in a few days."

Reyna replied nervously, "I'll have to report this to the senate. The numbers are not good. We lost over 1/3 of our ballistae and gun bunkers, about 1/5 of the legionaries were either killed or too injured to fight anytime soon."

"Get Jason," Percy said, "Tell him we have to leave for our quests now. The sooner we take off, the sooner we are back. We don't have time for a senate meeting right now. Evacuate as much citizens as you can, the attack is imminence."

Reyna nodded before racing to find Jason. Percy and Zoë quickly packed for the quest and grabbed Hazel on their way.

Percy turned to look down at Camp Jupiter. New Rome has been more of a home to him than anywhere else in the past few weeks. He remembered how he stumbled across San Fransisco like yesterday, and now he is leaving to a quest he had no idea whether he'd be able to return from or not.

He then looked around him, where Zoë and Hazel stood. They have been his only comfort ever since he arrived in New Rome. Even if he dies right here right now, he would be happy because he has friends like them right next to him.


	12. Sequel: Scorched Earth

**Good news, sequel to this story is up, come and take a look!**

**Perseus Son of Vesta: Scorched Earth**

** s/11377425/1/Perseus-Son-of-Vesta-Scorched-Earth**


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